WASHTENAW COUNTY, Mich. – The woman charged in the double murder of a foster family in Washtenaw County was bound over to stand trial on all charges.
Shuvonne Vinson appeared in court for a preliminary examination on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, before Washtenaw County Judge Cedric Simpson in 14A District Court.
The woman, along with Gregory Callhan, 37, and Keith Finley, 60, were charged in connection with the murder of Jennifer Bernhard, 48, and Stevie Smith, 74, and the attempted murder of Jeffrey Bernhard, 53, on Nollar Bend Road in Northfield Township on Jan. 1, 2025.
They are also accused of kidnapping the family’s 10-year-old daughter and their 4-year-old foster daughter. The foster child is Vinson’s biological daughter.
On April 16, 2025, Washtenaw County Judge Cedric Simpson ruled there was enough evidence for Callhan and Finley to stand trial.
During Vinson’s preliminary examination, we heard testimony from Jeffrey Bernhard, the foster father who was seriously injured in the attack, along with law enforcement authorities who had responded to the scene and were involved with investigating the case.
A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Oct. 1, 2025.
Here’s everything that happened in court on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025:
Foster father testifies
Jeffrey Bernhard was the first person called to testify.
On Jan.1, Bernhard said he and his wife, daughter, foster daughter and their father-in-law spent the day at their home on Nollar Bend Road after having 15-20 family members at the home the night before.
At the time, his daughter was 9, and the foster daughter was 4.
After they had eaten dinner, he went upstairs. While he was in his bedroom, which is over the garage, he heard a noise and saw a car he didn’t recognize outside.
He went back downstairs, where his wife was at the bottom of the stairs. He told her there was somebody at the house. He said they lived on a private drive, so they don’t often get cars going down the road.
His wife said it was probably an Amazon driver since they were still waiting on some orders.
Vinson, 2 others arrive at home
Bernhard said he was going to put his shoes on to go get the delivery, but before he did that, he heard noises and commotion coming from the front door and then heard some screams.
He heard thuds and banging and then heard screams from both girls and his wife.
When he heard his wife scream, he said, “It was a scream of horror and fear,” and he knew something was wrong.
He immediately went to them and saw the three individuals inside his home with guns.
Bernhard said he didn’t recognize the two men, but knew that the woman was Vinson.
Vinson previously made threats toward the family
Before the attack, they had been notified about threats from Vinson, in which she had allegedly said she would come to the house and take their daughter. This was discussed in family court a few weeks before the attack.
Bernhard said he saw Vinson holding a handgun, and the two men were holding longer guns.
As they were trying to control the situation, Vinson turned toward Bernhard, pointed the weapon at him, and told him to sit down in the corner of the kitchen.
Vinson was controlling the situation, father says
Bernhard said that Vinson then told Jennifer to go sit next to him.
The other two men were getting control of the girls. At some point, the two men also brought Bernhard’s father-in-law out of the den and into the kitchen and told him to lie down.
He said that he knew both girls were in the living room at this point, noting the house’s open floor plan.
While he and his wife were seated on the ground, Vinson stood close to them, leaning against the stove. She stayed there pretty much the whole time while aggressively yelling at them and accusing the Bernhards of a variety of things.
When asked about why it appeared as though Vinson was the one controlling the situation, Bernhard said that she was the one who had ordered the men to bring his father-in-law into the kitchen, had ordered them to go upstairs and told them to bring her biological daughter outside.
In addition, she allegedly got upset with the two men when they did something in a way she didn’t like.
Vinson accused foster mom of not letting daughter believe in God
During the aggressive conversation, Vinson accused his wife of “not letting (Vinson’s biological daughter) believe in God” and called them evil and demonic because of it.
Bernhard said this was ironic because the family was very involved with God, and that his father-in-law was an ordained pastor, and that his wife had also been an ordained pastor. They also went to church, and the girls were involved in Sunday school.
Bernhard also shared that while he was afraid, he wasn’t as terrified during the attack as one might think, and he attributes that to his faith.
The foster father said that he and his wife were trying to address the accusations and answer Vinson’s questions calmly to de-escalate the situation. None of what they said helped, though, and it seemed to agitate Vinson more, according to his testimony.
Bernhard also said that Vinson had allegedly referred to herself as a gangster and said, “‘I don’t care if I spend the rest of my life in jail, I still have the ability to harm you even behind bars.’”
“It was clear to me that she wanted us to believe she had power over us and that she was not just some person who just did this on a whim, and that she had been planning it, and that everything she had been doing was orchestrated,” said Bernhard.
Demands for money, bank transfer
Bernhard said that while making the accusations, she eventually turned to them and said, “‘Where do you keep the money?’”
He told her where his wallet was and said he had a couple of hundred dollars in it. Bernhard told her to take that money and said they could take the Nintendo Switch they had just bought for the girls, which was an expensive Christmas present they had just received.
But Bernhard said the defendants didn’t want anything to do with that.
They asked where the real money was, and Bernhard told them it was in the bank.
Bernhard said he explained that it would be a process to get a large amount of money transferred out of the bank.
At that point, Vinson took his wallet and, with a gun in one hand and Bernhard’s phone in the other, she demanded his bank password. He later learned she transferred $6,000 out of his account via Zelle.
Bernhard said the first violent act was toward him. He was hit on the forehead near his eyebrow with what he believed was the butt of a weapon. He believed Vinson was responsible for this.
He testified that he was struck when he was trying to respond to the accusations about them not letting Vinson’s daughter believe in God.
Foster father shot in chest
After that, he said some time passed, and after the conversation about the money, he must have said something that triggered her, and he was shot in the chest on the left side.
He believes the angle at which he was seated helped save his life.
As a result of being shot, he said three ribs were broken and his spleen was injured.
“It felt like fireworks were going off inside me,” Bernhard recalled as he talked about feeling the bullet.
After being shot, he was still able to sit there and tried to calm things down.
When the other two went to take Vinson’s daughter outside, Bernhard said the daughter walked by them to grab her coat and had wanted to stop and give them hugs. Then, when the child referred to the Bernhards as “Mommy” and “Daddy,” that upset Vinson.
When Bernhard was hit and shot the first time, his daughter witnessed it.
His daughter later told him that she was crouched down by the end of the couch until Vinson ordered her into the kitchen and told her to stand on the other side of her and not to move.
‘River of blood’: Foster father shot second time
The only thing Bernhard remembers about being shot in the head was that his wife said, “Please, Shuvonne, don’t do anything you’ll regret,” which triggered Vinson.
Then, Bernhard was shot on the right side of his head.
The bullet went through his forehead and his right eye, and he said that he recently had surgery to remove bullet fragments from his tongue.
He talked about being aware of the fact that he had been shot that time and said it felt like a “river of blood” was flowing from his head.
“In my mind, I was thinking I’m about to die,” Bernhard said.
Bernhard said he wasn’t afraid of dying because he believes in God, so he prayed, and then he passed out.
Asks neighbors for help
After around 15 minutes, he regained consciousness.
He said he found the strength to sit up and then went to put his shoes on so he could go ask the neighbors for help.
As he was doing this, he saw Jennifer sitting there with her head hung forward.
“I knew the moment I saw her she was dead,” Bernhard said.
He walked through the garage and to his neighbors. The first neighbor wasn’t home, so he walked down the street to his other neighbor’s home.
When the first Northfield Township officer arrived at the neighbor’s home, Bernhard answered some questions and when asked if he remembered who did this to him, he gave the officer Vinson’s name.
During the cross-examination of Bernhard, Vinson’s defense attorney asked him about not being able to recall who shot him previously. Bernhard said he doesn’t remember what he previously said.
When addressing Vinson, and the co-defendants arrived at the home on Jan. 1, Bernhard said from the sound he heard, he could tell the defendants were entering forcefully into the home, but agreed that he wasn’t at the front door.
Bernhard also clarified that he didn’t see Vinson go upstairs, but after he was shot in the head, he was unconscious, so he didn’t know where she went after that.
Vinson alleges physical and sexual abuse, attorney says
The defense attorney also brought up claims that Vinson made complaints about her daughter being physically and sexually abused at the Bernhards’ house.
Bernhard said he wasn’t aware that Vinson had made these complaints until after the attack.
The two main complaints he was aware of and that Vinson discussed that night were them being referred to as “Mommy” and “Daddy,” and the one regarding whether they let their foster child believe in God.
During a virtual visit with her daughter, Vinson misunderstood something, which prompted the complaint, according to Bernhard.
Vinson gets escorted out of court
At that point, Vinson said something during court, and Judge Simpson had her escorted out.
After a brief break, Vinson returned to the courtroom.
Before the court started, the judge said he had told counsel that he wasn’t going to deal with any outbursts from Vinson. He said if there were any more outbursts, she would have to leave the courtroom, but Vinson ended up staying in court for the rest of the hearing.
Related: Court outburst stuns as suspects face 19 felony charges in Northfield Township double homicide
Cross-examination of foster father continues
As the defense attorney continued cross-examining Bernhard, he said he first learned of the sexual abuse and physical abuse allegations Vinson had made during a CPS investigation after the attack.
Bernhard also said that Vinson would have virtual visits with her daughter once a week. Bernhard was present for them.
Virtual visits between Vinson and her daughter
During the redirect, Bernhard explained that as of Jan. 1, the visits Vinson had with her daughter were virtual and had been virtual for a period of time leading up to that.
These visits were also supervised by a caseworker. It wasn’t his job or his wife’s job to supervise them, but their presence in those visits was simply to assist the girl in using the laptop so she wouldn’t push buttons or turn it off.
He said they connected the laptop to a TV so she could have the visit on the TV while playing and having her snacks. They did this in an upstairs bedroom to give her privacy. Either he or his wife would be in the room to assist and just make sure their foster child was safe, because they didn’t want to leave a 4-year-old in a room all alone.
During the visits, he said he would go into the bathroom, and his wife would sit off to the side to provide privacy while the daughter was having the visits with Vinson.
Those visits became problematic for various reasons, and the agency decided that the caseworker would go to their house and sit with their foster child while the visits were happening.
At that point, Jeffrey and his wife didn’t attend the visits. The visits went on like this for about two months; they weren’t always consistent, though, because Vinson would cancel or show up late, and they’d often end up getting canceled or rescheduled, according to Bernhard.
$50K in property damage
Bernhard also discussed the property damage at the house during this hearing.
He said after the insurance company did an evaluation, the total about the insurance paid out for everything was $50,000, and a portion of that was from just the cleanup.
There was significant damage to several areas of the home, including the floor, cabinets, stair railing, front door and screen door.
Bernhard said the $50,000 didn’t even cover all the damage that happened to the floor.
Law enforcement officials testify
After Bernhard gave his testimony, Northfield Township Sgt. James Basso called to testify.
The sergeant talked about arriving at the neighbor’s home after the attack and seeing Jeffrey’s gunshot wounds, securing the Bernhard’s home, and finding the bodies of Jennifer and Stevie.
He said there were two brass bullet casings found in the kitchen. After being at the house, he left to notify next of kin and then also went to the hospital to interview one of Vinson’s co-defendants.
Washtenaw County Sheriff Deputy Gabriel Bachtol was the next person called to testify. He talked about how he was on patrol in the area that night during his shift and was called to go check an address in Ypsilanti Township that was connected to Vinson.
He said he saw a black vehicle driving down the road and then pulling in and out of driveways a few times before it turned down a dead-end road.
Detaining Vinson
After that, he encountered a male, who was later identified as Vinson’s son, and after detaining him, a woman, later identified as Vinson, walked over and said she was looking for her son. When he asked Vinson her name, she didn’t give him her real name.
She was uncooperative while she was being detained, and Bachtol called for help to place her in handcuffs.
He said that after that, Vinson was put inside the patrol car, and he went to assist with finding the abandoned vehicle.
Related: Video creates clearer timeline of what happened after foster family murder in Washtenaw County
Finding the Bernhards’ biological daughter, Callhan and Finley
When they found it at the furthest point at the dead-end street, they approached and found Callhan, Finley, the Bernhards’ biological daughter and their family dog inside the vehicle. Vinson’s biological daughter wasn’t in the car. We previously learned that before they were found, Vinson and the codefendants had dropped her off at Vinson’s mother’s home.
After that, the deputy went back to the scene where Vinson was, and a female officer was called to search Vinson.
Loaded gun found on Vinson
While completing the search, the woman found a loaded gun under Vinson’s arm, near her armpit.
At that point, she had been in custody for 30 minutes.
Northfield Township Det. Sgt Jason Roberts was next to testify, and he talked about how when he arrived at the scene, he began preparing search warrants for the Nollar Bend Road and the Lexington Parkway addresses.
He went inside the Bernhards’ home after MSP was done processing for evidence. They didn’t have the personnel to process that large of a scene, so they requested MSP’s assistance.
Vinson’s gun was turned over to him after it was recovered, and on Jan. 2, he executed a search warrant on the car and located another gun in the rear hatch.
He also said Jeffrey Bernhard’s credit cards and the jewelry from the home had been turned over to him during the investigation. They were removed from Callhan and Finley.
Smith’s checkbook was also recovered from the suspect vehicle.
Vinson tells officer she shot the Bernhards and Smith
Roberts and a state police officer interviewed Vinson. It lasted about 45 minutes. When they questioned if anybody had asked her to do this, Vinson told them that she had shot the people in the house.
When asked, he said he did not come across evidence that the Bernhards physically or sexually abused Vinson’s daughter and hadn’t come across any evidence that the allegations existed before she killed the Bernhards.
Statements from prosecution, defense
The prosecution requested to add an armed robbery charge against Vinson, due to the jewelry, the checkbook book and the dog being taken from the home.
During the closing statements, the prosecution said the gun found in Vinson’s armpit matches the casings from the gun that was fired in the Bernhards’ home. She also noted the damage to the home and screams of fear from Jennifer when addressing the defense’s claim that Jeffrey Bernhard wasn’t at the front door, so he couldn’t testify if Vinson, Callhan and Finley were let in or not.
The defense reiterated that although Bernhard heard noises coming from the front of the house that sounded like them forcefully entering, he couldn’t say if permission was granted. He also claimed the noises could have happened after the three suspects had entered the house.
In addition, the defense also argued against the kidnapping charges.
Bound over
After hearing the testimony, Simpson found that there was enough evidence to bind Vinson over on all charges.
Next court date
A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025.