PONTIAC, Mich. – A 34-year-old man found guilty of murder escaped punishment Monday by hanging himself in his cell the night before his sentencing hearing.
Kevin Jermaine Wiley was found guilty of first-degree murder and was expected to face sentencing Monday but was found dead in his cell.
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ORIGINAL REPORT: Mother finds 30-year-old daughter dead in closet
Marie Elizabeth Colburn was found dead in a closet of her apartment in Pontiac in April 2016. Her mother found the body.
The Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the cause of death to be suffocation.
Colburn’s mother went to the home looking for her daughter since she hadn’t heard from her in four days. Attached to the door of the apartment in the 100 block of Ridgemont Drive was a notice from the Michigan Department of Corrections, which had tried to make contact with the Colburn’s boyfriend, Wiley, who was on parole at the time of the murder after being convicted of manslaughter and second-degree home invasion in Wayne County.
Wiley had not reported into the Pontiac Parole Office several days before Colburn was found and a warrant was issued for his arrest after MDOC received an alert indicating Wiley had tampered with his tether.
Colburn’s vehicle was missing from the home and was later found in Detroit.
Wiley was located in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and was extradited back to Michigan.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Department said deputies found Wiley hanging from his cell with a sheet. He was taken to McLaren Oakland Hospital and was pronounced dead.
Wiley was expected to be sentenced to natural life in prison.
The medical examiner ruled Wiley’s death as suicide by hanging.