Press enter after choosing selection

Court Denies Appeal In Robbery - Murder

Court Denies Appeal In Robbery - Murder image
Parent Issue
Day
22
Month
August
Year
1986
Copyright
Copyright Protected
Rights Held By
Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Court denies appeal in robbery-murder

By AMY SMITH 

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Machelle Pearson, who at 17 was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1983 fatal shooting and armed robbery of an Ann Arbor woman, has been denied a second trial by the state Court of Appeals.

The panel of three judges affirmed the first degree murder conviction on Thursday. In May, the panel heard oral arguments from defense attorney Gary Boren and Washtenaw Assistant Prosecutor Jack Simms.

Pearson, who is serving a life prison term at the Huron Valley Women’s Facility, was convicted in June 1984 for the killing of 39-year-old Nancy Faber in November 1983.

A copy of the panel’s written opinion was not immediately available this morning.

“I’m very upset about this,” said Boren. “I think it is appealable, but I am not sure whether counsel will be provided Machelle to take this to the Supreme Court. If she had the resources, I think she should take it to the Supreme Court.”

Boren had argued that Ann Arbor police detectives arrested Pearson without a warrant; that Washtenaw Circuit Judge Ross W. Campbell should not have admitted Pearson’s taped confession into evidence, and that the judge did not clearly instruct the jury on Pearson’s duress defense.

Pearson, who testified on her own behalf, had claimed she had been beaten by her boyfriend, Ricardo Hart, who forced her to rob Faber at gunpoint as she was leaving a Green Road grocery store.

“It’s just wrong,” Boren added this morning, “for a person with a history of abuse, who was abused before (the shooting) to have to spend the rest of her life in jail.”

Hart, who was also convicted of first degree murder and armed robbery, is awaiting word on his appeal.