Many months after Samantha Grigg, Tyrel Bredernitz, and Brendan Heim were sent to prison for the death of MSU student Dustyn Frolka, the 4th teen to face charges has been sentenced. Christopher John Foley, who was 16 at the time of Dustyn’s death but is now 18, has been sentenced to prison for 3 to 6 years for the role he played in what happened in February of 2014.
Foley is said to have been one of the teens who helped plan the robbery which ultimately led to Dustyn’s death. Although he wasn’t present when the events occurred, and therefore wasn’t a part of the beating that took the young student’s life, Foley knew ahead of time what his friends planned to do.
According to police reports and the testimony of Samantha Grigg, the teen who drove the car that night, it happened like this:
Grigg picked up Brendan Heim and Tyrel Bredernitz, all since convicted and incarcerated, and dropped them off at Dustyn Frolka’s apartment. When she received a text from Heim, she returned and picked the three young men up. She then drove them around to several ATMs, where Frolka withdrew about $800 in total, which he then handed over.
Frolka’s death not known until broadcast on the news
But at some point during the drive, Heim and Frolka got into an argument and Heim proceeded to hit him with a pair of brass knuckles. In an effort to escape the beating, Frolka opened the car door while on I-69 and threw himself from the moving vehicle. The teens fled the scene, and didn’t find out about Frolka’s death until it was broadcast on the news the next day.
Grigg, Heim and Bredernitz were all convicted on various murder and armed robbery charges. But Foley, who hadn’t been present at the time, was accused of helping to plan the robbery and then assisting to cover up the murder after it happened. He was charged with being an accessory to a felony after the fact, and receiving stolen property.
However, the prosecution then offered Foley a plea deal, which he accepted. In return for his no contest plea to a single count of conspiracy to commit armed robbery, they agreed to drop the stolen property and accessory after the fact charges. Foley entered the plea and the deal was done.
He appeared recently in the Washtenaw County Circuit Court for sentencing, where he was given 3 to 5 years behind bars. His statement was read in court, where he expressed great remorse at what had happened, and said that he “felt terrible about what happened.”