LANSING, Mich. — The man accused of killing Kaylee Brock and Julie Mooney accepted a plea deal, according to an email sent to Fox 47.
The message, from Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon’s email account, was sent to Patrick O’Keefe, the lawyer representing Roger Brock, father of Kaylee Brock.
Kiernan Brown, 28, is charged with killing Kaylee Brock and Mooney in early May of 2019.
Details of the deal were not immediately known, nor has it been formally accepted in court. His next scheduled court appearance is a pre-trial hearing at 11 a.m., where he could take the deal.
The sentencing guidelines would call for 30 to 50 years at minimum, with 75 to 99 years as the maximum.
Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Scott Hughes said there was “no reason to doubt the accuracy” of the email. He said the office believes Brown will be imprisoned for 45 to 50 years.
Brock told Fox 47 in June he was shocked about the possibility of a plea deal.
“I can’t imagine that 30 years from now, a man who did such horrible things to human beings would be able to walk among us again,” Brock said.
While Brock wants to see Brown convicted, he wants it to come from a jury trial, not a plea bargain.
“My daughter doesn’t get the opportunity to walk among us, Julie doesn’t get the opportunity to walk among us,” Brock said. “We don’t get any parole or reprieve, Kaylee and Julie didn’t get any reprieve, so why should this person every get a reprieve?”
Those sentiments were backed up by Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth, who asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to take the case away from County Prosecutor Carol Siemon.
“To get out and potentially have the ability to kill again scares the death out of me,” Wriggelsworth said. “Both families think this is nowhere near justice for their loved ones, and I agree with them.”
Brock and Wriggelsworth aren’t confident even the maximum 50 years in the plea deal could change who Kiernan Brown is.
“He made the statement he wanted to be the greatest serial killer of all time, he hasn’t done that yet,” Brock said. “So he’ll have 30-50 years to think about how he’s going to complete that?”
“He freely admitted that he was going to kill random people until he got caught,” Wriggelsworth said. “If there ever was someone who deserves to be in jail for the rest of his life, Kiernan Brown is it.”
Wriggelsworth said it’s abundantly clear the prosecutor is more focused on getting Kiernan Brown a hearing in front of the parole board than she is getting justice for the victims and their families.
Siemon said the plea bargain offer has been misconstrued.
On paper, it says Brown could be sentenced to as few as 30 years. But she said the big picture idea is to take life without parole off the table.
In a statement by Siemon released in June, the prosecutor said she first and foremost works to hold people accountable for their actions and ensure the community’s safety.
“I also believe that reforming the criminal justice system to ensure overall fairness in processes is an important part of my job as a ‘minister of justice,‘” Siemon said. “In that regard, I have worked for alternatives to life without the possibility of parole sentences, in the Kiernan Brown case and others.”
Siemon said it’s a matter of reform; she said she’s done research and found a study out of Stanford that monitored 860 homicide convicts that were released on parole.
According to the study, not one committed another homicide, and only five committed another felony.
Siemon said the prosecutor’s office discussed recommending “due to the heinous nature of the crimes, the minimum sentence be at the high end of the range.”
That means Kiernan Brown could spend a lot more than 30 years in prison.
In a letter from O’Keefe to Siemon sent July 6, the attorney asked the prosecutor to not make a deal.
“This is not the time or case to try to be consistent about your philosophy of giving everyone a chance at parole,” O’Keefe said. “Not everyone deserves that chance, especially not this murderer.”
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