Man gets life without parole for murder of elderly Delta Township man
Ken PalmerCHARLOTTE - A 27-year-old Lansing man was sent to prison for life Tuesday for his role in the brutal murder of an elderly Delta Township man in 2016.
Andrew Mack Johnson received the mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole for first-degree felony murder and first-degree premeditated murder.
Eaton County Circuit Judge John Maurer also gave Johnson a concurrent prison term of 84 months to 400 months for safebreaking.
Authorities said Johnson and his girlfriend at the time, Dymond Squires, made a plan to steal money from John Abraham Sr., 78 and went to his home on July 5, 2016.
Abraham was beaten with a hammer and cut across his throat, and about $30,000 in cash was taken from a safe in his home
Johnson told police that he and Squires needed money and talked their way into Abraham's home early on July 5, 2016. Abraham knew Squires because she had worked for him as a caretaker.
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Johnson admitted breaking into a safe in the house but blamed Squires for murdering the man. Jurors convicted him as charged after a trial in January.
Squires, 26, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree murder and safebreaking with an agreement that her minimum prison sentence be set at 49 years. Maurer will set her maximum term when she is sentenced in May.
On Tuesday, Maurer ordered Johnson to pay $30,000 in restitution, although that sum will be reduced by about $15,000 once recovered money in evidence is released, Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd said in a news release.
"A senior citizen in our community, who lived for his son, was brutally and senselessly killed for rent money and personal greed," Lloyd said in the release. "Justice for John Abraham and his family has been served with Mr. Johnson forever removed from a free society."
An attorney for Johnson did not immediately return a phone message left for him by the State Journal.
Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.