WHITE LAKE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – One of the people who broke into a White Lake Township garage, a burglary that ended with a 17-year-old being shot and killed, has been sentenced.
Matthew Grinage, 21, was sentenced Monday to 365 days in the Oakland County Jail after pleading no contest to one count of breaking and entering, according to Oakland County Circuit Court records.
He received credit for 136 days already served. Judge Daniel P. O’Brien presided over the sentencing. Grinage was also ordered to pay $130 in victims’ rights fees and $68 in state minimum costs, and was issued a no-contact order with the victims.
Grinage was one of five people, including four minors, charged in connection with an attempted burglary at a White Lake Township home in the early hours of July 8, 2025.
Previous coverage: Homeowner, suspects facing charges after teen killed in alleged Oakland County garage break-in
According to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, the group broke into a detached garage belonging to homeowner Dayton Knapton, 24, at around 1 a.m.
Knapton left his house armed with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun and allegedly fired two shots through the locked, windowless garage door. As the suspects fled, Knapton allegedly fired five more shots. He then went back inside, reloaded, and returned outside, prosecutors said.
Seventeen-year-old Sivan Wilson, of Pontiac, was struck by a bullet fired through the locked door. Wilson did not receive medical care for about 30 minutes and died from the injuries.
Knapton has been charged with manslaughter, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, and two counts of felony firearm, charges Wilson’s family said do not go far enough.
“It doesn’t make sense that it wasn’t done out of malice and for them to charge him with manslaughter when everything in the report suggests that it was malicious intent,” Wilson’s sister, Armani Madden, said when charges were issued.
Wilson’s father, Shawn Madden, said his son was running away when he was shot.
“Sivan was running away and got shot,” he said. “I never heard anything about him getting shot in the garage.”
Knapton’s defense attorney, Dov Lustig, previously said his client should never have been charged. Lustig said Knapton’s home had been broken into twice before, and that police advised him only to upgrade his security system. On the night of the shooting, Lustig said Knapton acted in self-defense and warned the group before firing.
“This is a case of stone self-defense,” Lustig previously said.
Knapton is scheduled to appear in court again for his preliminary examination on April 16.