CASSOPOLIS, Mich. (WOOD) — An Indiana man has entered a plea agreement in a 1977 murder in southwestern Michigan.
Raymond Richmond pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the November 1977 murder of his cousin Robert Stasiak in Cass County’s Ontwa Township, near the Indiana border.
As part of the plea deal, Richmond will be sentenced to 12 to 18 years in prison and a felony firearm charge was dropped.
Richmond, who was at 18 at the time, fatally shot his cousin after authorities say Stasiak flushed his cousin’s marijuana down the toilet.
In 2015, the Ontwa Township Edwardsburg Police Department reopened the investigation into Stasiak’s death and his body was exhumed so an autopsy could be performed. Then in May 2016 Richmond was arrested in South Bend, Indiana.
His sentencing date is scheduled for Sept. 15.