- Posted November 21, 2014
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
Man gets no-parole sentence in medical student's death
ANN ARBOR (AP) - Parents on both sides of a murder case comforted each other Wednesday as a young man was sentenced to life in prison for the fatal shooting of a University of Michigan medical student.
"It helps to know their family is on the same page as we are, that they're feeling the hurt, the losses," the victim's father, Thom DeWolf, said after hugging Dejeon Franklin's mother in court.
Franklin, 22, received the automatic sentence five weeks after he was convicted of killing Paul DeWolf.
"I'm sorry we had to come together under these conditions," mother Kimberly Hearns said of herself and the DeWolf family.
DeWolf, 25, was attending medical school on an Air Force scholarship last year when he was shot during an armed robbery. Investigators say he struggled with Franklin over a gun, although Franklin maintained his innocence Wednesday, the Ann Arbor News reported.
"I didn't do this," he told a judge. "This is not something I would do. Anyone who knows me knows the type of person I am. A loving person. Fun to be with. I know what I did. It's a loss on both ends. I'm just sorry it had to work out this way."
Police said DeWolf's blood was on Franklin's shoes. Two other defendants face trial early next year.
DeWolf grew up in Schoolcraft, south of Kalamazoo, and graduated from Grand Valley State University.
Published: Fri, Nov 21, 2014
headlines Oakland County
- Annual Dinner & Meeting
- FORCE Team arrests six in prolific auto theft ring
- Michigan allocates $12 million to support community-based organizations in advancing environmental and climate justice
- Oakland County and SMART launch pilot program providing free transit for veterans and dependents
- Supreme Court sides with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
headlines National
- More lawyers—and clients—want to learn about sustainable development practices
- Top artificial intelligence insurance tips for lawyers
- Lawyer charged with illegally transmitting Michigan data after 2020 election
- Viral video shows former Rikers Island inmate as she learns she passed bar exam on first try
- How Sullivan & Cromwell is scrutinizing potential new hires after campus protests
- No separate hearing required when police seize cars loaned to drivers accused of drug crimes, SCOTUS rules