A Livingston County detective, Mark Klein, testified last week at a preliminary exam that a former murder suspect told him Sean Anthony Duke posted a suspicious comment on Facebook.
The posting said, “What to do?? … 30K I have to spend.”
This is how police came to pinpoint a Webberville man as the killer of a landscaper from Iosco Township. The detective testified to all of this and the victim was known to carry around large amounts of money.
Klein testified that he questioned Duke as many as ten times after the Facebook posting emerged in 2012. The post popped up one month after the killing of Ronald Hauser who was found dead in his basement on New Years Eve 2011.
He also stated this appeared to be a possible robbery and homicide scenario which left Duke $30,000 to spend.
The medical examiner testified that the victim had been shot once in the chest. “The heart was shredded,” said Dr. John Bechinski.
Detectives May have Found The Smoking Gun
One detective with the Michigan State Police, who is also a ballistics expert, testified that the rounds were shot from the same barrel of a Mossberg shotgun. This is the same kind of rifle that many witnesses said Duke liked and used during hunting practice the previous November.
The defense attorney in this case argued that no evidence existed showing that Duke, who is a much shorter man than the victim, could have shot the gun at the angle that the medical examiner indicated. In addition, he stated that nothing linked the used ammo found at the scene to his client either.
“It really looks like they’re stretching to make these counts stick to Mr. Duke,” the defense attorney chimed in.
After hearing testimony from several witnesses, District Court Judge Carol Sue Reader ruled that Duke be bound over to Circuit Court to face trial on numerous charges, including home invasion, first-degree murder, and felony firearms. No future court dates were scheduled yet.