Delayed Justice

Kirt Speet, Shelley Speet Mills’ eldest brother was in the area late this summer and he consented to sit for an interview. He was eleven years older than Shelley. Now, that’s an age difference that puts him half a generation from her experiences. By the time she was a young woman, he was out of the house, first at college, and then living his own life. So, he was somewhat removed from her day-to-day life. But he loved her deeply. His comments are here.

Jessica was brutally murdered outside a bar in Detroit, Wayne County, MI on Saturday night or early Sunday morning, Sept 3, 2005, 39 days before her 25th birthday.

Police believe that her throat was slit; however, her body was set on fire and left near a dumpster a few blocks from the bar in an alley, making actual cause of death indeterminable.  She was found early Monday morning (Labor Day) by a resident taking out trash.  To date, no arrests have been made in her murder.  The prime suspect (a known pimp in the Detroit area) disappeared within days of the murder.  Police believe he is  hiding in the Phoenix and/or Los Angeles area. 

Jessica had her 18-month-old son, Izaac, with her at the time, but police don’t know whether the baby was at the scene of the murder.  

Contact was made between Jessica and the prime suspect through acquaintances in Houston, TX.  Jessica went to Detroit without her family’s knowledge to “work” for him for a short period.  

The Detroit Metro Homicide division originally investigated the case as an unidentified body.  Jessica’s best friend was contacted via phone on the Wednesday evening following the murder.  She stated that she and Jessica had been at the bar together and had stepped outside.  She returned to the bar alone while Jessica stayed outside.  When she was ready to leave, Jessica still had not appeared.  She said she had returned to the bar later that night and had found one of Jessica’s shoes lying in the street in front of the bar.  She had Izaac and was worried about Jessica, and wanted to let Jessica’s family know that she was missing. 

Family members immediately made arrangements to fly to Detroit the following day to meet with Jessica’s friend, to get Izaac, and to find Jessica.  As planned, the family made a phone call to this woman from the airport in Houston at the time Jessica’s sister was boarding the plane.  There was no answer.  After numerous phone calls, a man answered the phone and wanted to know if Jessica had returned to Houston or if the family had any knowledge of her whereabouts.  Family members say this man’s name or nickname is believed to be “Taye” (spelling may be incorrect). 

 No one appeared at the airport in Detroit with Izaac as planned.   Jessica’s sister spent the night at the Detroit airport, returned to Houston the following morning and filed missing person’s reports on Jessica and Izaac.  She and two friends returned to Detroit on Friday morning with posters and the Houston missing person’s report in hand.  They visited several precincts in Detroit before arriving at Precinct 1, where an officer overheard the story being told to a desk clerk and realized that the unidentified body found the previous Monday may be Jessica’s.  Approximately three weeks later, Jessica’s body was identified through dental records.  Izaac was found at the home of the prime suspect’s grandmother and taken into protective custody.  A custody hearing was held, and Izaac was returned to his family in Houston.

 MJVH

Earlier this year I was surprised and delighted to learn that the bar association in the county where I formerly lived was going to give me its Liberty Bell Award.  That award goes to someone who is NOT an attorney, someone who does something to forward the cause of justice.  The Isabella County Bar Association wanted to let me know that its members thought my work on the Janet Chandler case was commendable.  I remember not being able to stop laughing when my friend informed me of the award.  The laugh was from pure delight.  I know a lot of the members of that bar association and I hold them in very high regard.  I wasn’t laughing at anything funny; I was laughing because I was honored and grateful…and delighted.  The award was conferred Thursday evening in Mt. Pleasant.  There was a chance to be interviewed by Amelia Eramya, a student journalist from CMLife and to have my picture taken by Jeff Smith, a photog for the same paper.  (These are lovely young people and the future of the world is in good hands.)  You can read her article and see another of his photographs here.  There also was good conversation, great food, good friends, including a new one, bar president Matt Romashko.

 

David with Matt Romashko of the Isabella County Bar Association. Photo courtesy of Jeff Smith

 

Sometimes this work is heavy and it’s occasions like these that bring a sense that what we’re doing matters to others.  We are glad that our efforts might be of some help.  And for the honors?  I’ll try to live up to them.

The Morning Sun, one of the newspapers I used to edit a million and a half years ago, also ran a story.

That’s a whole lot of good intentions on the parts of a whole lot of people.  Thank you very much.

Last week I met with Gail and Jerry Battaglia.  Their oldest son, Joel, had been murdered in 1990 and of everything Jerry said to me, that was the one thing that most kept me awake that night: “It’s never 19 years ago.”

His son’s murder might have well have happened this week; it’s that fresh.  I hear something like that again and again as I deal with family members who have lost loved ones to murder.  There is no easing of the memory, no putting things in perspective.  There IS no perspective.  It doesn’t make sense, it can’t make sense.

We met at Mass at their church in Grand Rapids.  That’s a good way to start a relationship.  And afterward we went out for coffee (juice, water, coffee, muffins, cookies) in effect continuing the communion.   Oh, how they love their sons and how they miss the one who was taken from them.

You can read the story about Joel Battaglia by clicking on his name.  Please send up a prayer when you do because it’s never 19 years ago.  It’s always now.

Christopher Joel Battaglia was found beaten and left for dead in the early morning hours of June 11, 1990, in front of 1065 Lake Dr., Grand Rapids, MI.  His body was discovered by an off-duty security guard from Blodgett Memorial Medical Center who saw Battaglia—known as Joel—lying across the street from Trinity United Methodist Church.   The responding officer tried to revive him before Battaglia was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:36 a.m.

He remained unidentified until the next day because his identification was missing.  He was identified partly though a tattoo of a phoenix just above his right ankle.  Once identified police learned that he had been at Mulligan’s Pub, an Eastown bar, with a young woman.  She told police that there she and Joel had an argument and Joel left the bar at closing time, perhaps at 2 a.m. or a little after.  The bar is ten blocks from where he was found.

According to his parents, Gail and Jerry Battaglia, Joel “had just enrolled for his senior year at Aquinas. He had graduated magna cum laude from GR Catholic Central in 1985. He was prom king that year.”  He’d been offered several academic scholarships and chose to attend New Mexico Tech. to study petroleum engineering.  He refined his interests and moved to James Madison College at Michigan State University to study foreign affairs.  And again he made a change.  He took some time off and moved to California to sail and work.  Then he moved to Grand Rapids two months before his death and said he intended to go to Aquinas College to study education.  “He was going to be a teacher,” said his mother.  Both she and Jerry spent their working lives teaching.  Gail taught elementary education at inner-city Grand Rapids Schools for 35 years.

Police theorize that the murderous assault may have been the work of a gang, perhaps the Wealthy Street Boys.  Joel’s parents also mentioned the Nine Iron Posse and The Cherry Street Boys.  They had heard though telephone communication from unidentified callers and an anonymous letter that Joel had been the mistaken target of the beating.  The murderers, said a caller, were aiming for another young man who might have owed them money.

Joel had not been involved in gangs or drugs, say his parents.  “If anything he was strongly against drug use,” said his mother.  “He spent a New Year’s Eve in the emergency room with someone who was having a problem.  Joel had been to a party and this young man was having some kind of drug-related episode.  No one else was doing anything and Joel managed to get him to the emergency room and stayed with him.  That’s the kind of man he was.”

“He was the person you wanted around you when you were in trouble,” said Jerry.

“After he told us about the emergency-room trip,” his mother added, “I told him I hoped that if ever he was in trouble that there’d be a ‘Joel’ there for him.”

In addition to his parents, he is survived by his younger brother, Jeremy.

DBS

The following clippings are from The Grand Rapids Press.  Copyright rests with The Press.

Body Found, June 11, 1990 Grand Rapids Press

The Grand Rapids Press, June 13, 1990, page B1

The Grand Rapids Press, June 13, 1990, page B3

Grand Rapids Press, June 28, 1990, page D3

Gail’s letter to the Press, July 26, 1990

Grand Rapids Press, July 29, 1990

Gail and Jerry Battaglia in 1990

Grand Rapids Press, July 29, 1990, page A2

Grand Rapids Press, June 11, 1991, page C1

Grand Rapids Press, June 11, 1991

Grand Rapids Press, June 11, 1991, page C1

Grand Rapids Press, June 11, 1991, page C1

Grand Rapids Press, June 11, 1991

Grand Rapids Press, February 6, 1992, page B1

Grand Rapids Press, February 6, 1992

Grand Rapids Press, February 7, 1993, page A1

Grand Rapids Press, February 7, 1993

Grand Rapids Press, February 7, 1993, page A17

Wilmer Martin, 48, was found dead of a stab wound to the chest at about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, August 20, 2005.  His body was found behind a shed on Spring St. near Apple Avenue.  Martin was known as “the shopping cart man” for his practice of wheeling his heavily laden shopping cart through Muskegon and Muskegon Heights neighborhoods.  Reports indicate that he wasn’t homeless; he rented a room in the Jackson Hill neighborhood.  Martin was a graduate of Muskegon Catholic Central.  According to his brother Marvin, Wilmer’s family believes that he was–at some point and in some fashion–given a drug, perhaps LSD, unaware and that gave rise to an underlying condition, something like schizophrenia.  “Wilmer was always cheerful and he’d give you the shirt off his back,” said Marvin.

DBS

During the past week I have been working on two more names for We Remember.  Now, normally it’s Melissa–our Grand Haven necrologist–who compiles these files.  But these two have come my way and I’ll make the attempt.  The two victims are Wilmer Martin of Muskegon (murdered August 20, 2005) and Joel Battaglia of Grand Rapids (murdered June 11, 1990).  Generally I am hesitant to write about something like an entry for We Remember until it’s done, but something today says DO THIS.  Their names are largely absent in an internet search.  This medium is a powerful tool for good.  Their cases will be up if the family members desire it so.  

Sometimes we’re asked “What’s the cost?”  There is none.  And sometimes we’re asked “What’s the catch?”  None, we trust (we look at our own motives fairly frequently).  It may be that if this site is useful we’ll have opportunities to tell the stories to a wider audience.  In any event we don’t intend to trade on the grief of families.  They’ve already had far too much taken from them.

So, keep Joel and Wilmer and their families in your prayers.