Parolee who served time for 1993 homicide sentenced for 2020 murder of Farmington Hills man

A Detroit felon goes again to jail for robbing and killing a Farmington Hills man in Dearborn 5 years in the past — his second manslaughter conviction.

After a mistrial in 2024 and a no-contest plea final month, Robert Lee Bailey, Jr., 54, was sentenced on November 14 to 5-20 years in jail on a diminished cost of second-degree homicide for the deadly capturing of Darius Whiting in 2020. Decide Mark Slavens of the third Judicial Circuit Courtroom additionally imposed a further two years in jail on Bailey’s second-offense firearm cost. Bailey, who was scheduled to face a second trial, pleaded no contest to the crimes; costs of first-degree homicide, first-degree homicide, armed theft, felon in possession of a firearm and three different first-degree firearm costs have been dismissed.

Bailey’s in depth prison historical past contains convictions for manslaughter in Wayne County in 1993 – for which he was sentenced to 15-40 years behind bars in 1994 – assault on a jail worker and possession of a weapon whereas in jail, and different crimes. He was launched on parole in June 2020, about three months earlier than Whiting’s theft and homicide.

In accordance with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Workplace, Whiting was killed throughout an armed theft in Dearborn on September 22, 2020. Cops dispatched the subsequent day to an alley on Schlaff Road, close to Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Street, discovered Whiting’s physique in a automobile. Whiting died of a number of gunshot wounds, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned. He was 49 years previous.

Bailey was booked into the Wayne County Jail on February 2, 2021 – greater than 4 months after Whiting’s homicide. His trial final yr in Wayne County led to a mistrial as a result of the jury couldn’t attain a unanimous verdict.