Inmate pleads to 1st-degree murder in third slaying in same prison in 2022

A 47-year-old prisoner has taken a uncommon step in court docket and doesn’t dispute the assault of the primary diploma homicide towards him for killing a fellow prisoner within the Macomb Correctional Facility.

Michael Ketchum, who has needed to kill one other prisoner for 44 years, entered a no-contact plea in Macomb County Circuit Court docket final week in Mount Clemens for the 2022 useless of Ruben Martinez, 28 and will likely be convicted on April 23 with no conditional exemption by decide Kathryn Viviano.

As a part of a plea of ​​10 March, the accusations of an try to kill one other prisoner on the identical day and the possession of a weapon in jail will likely be rejected, archives say.

There have solely been a handful of homicide pleasure in Macomb County in Macomb County within the final 20 years.

The killing was found on October 18, 2022 within the State State Jail of Lenox after Ketchum had put one other prisoner within the head and neck eight occasions whereas on his manner again to his cell after breakfast, in accordance with the authorities. Officers found the cell mate of Ketchum, Martinez, Hogtied, strangled and stabbed to demise below his mattress in his cell, mentioned civil servants.

A sharpened object was used as a weapon within the assault, officers mentioned.

Officers gave no motive.

It was the third homicide and one of many 4 incidents within the 26 Mile Highway Facility in 2022, in order that the director was eliminated by the Michigan Division of Corrections.

MDOC officers discovered on the finish of November 2022 {that a} rap video was filmed in September in jail and proven on YouTube.com. Cameras and cellphones are forbidden for prisoners.

In Might 2022, Elrick Cooper Martell Smith, 26, stabbed lethal with a shaft throughout a combat. Cooper didn’t argue for second -degree homicide in December and was convicted of Macomb Circuit Decide Richard Caretti for 30 to eight to twenty years. The penalty was successively on a 25-to-50-year time period of workplace that Cooper serves for an armed theft in Sagantew County in 2007.

Een ander doden vond plaats in september 2022 toen Michael Anthony Fleming, 41, dodelijk gevangene Christopher Neely, 33. Fleming werd gestoken, werd beschuldigd van moord in de eerste graad en pleitte geen wedstrijd voor tweedegraads moord in 2023 in 2023 in 2023 in 2023 in 2023 in 2023 in 2023 in 2023 in 2023 als onderdeel van een deal om ook de to reject fourth-habitual standing. He was sentenced in November 2023 by Macomb Circuit Decide Julie Gatti to fifteen to 50 years in jail, to be operated successively in his 25-50-year time period for 3 counts of first-degree felony sexual conduct in SaginaW County in 2009.

Ketchum has since been convicted of tried homicide and sentenced to 44 years in jail in 2021 for attacking a prisoner in a facility of SaginaW County, in accordance with the jail reviews.

At the moment he served 28 years for an tried homicide in 2009 in Kalamazoo County, information say. He additionally obtained lesser penalties for kidnapping, armed theft and the operation of a methamphetamine lab in two additional incidents that 12 months in Kalamazoo County, information say.

In 2019, Ketchum additionally attacked a colleague -prisoner in SaginaW County, information say.

Initially printed: March 18, 2025 at 10:24 am Edt