MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — A 33-year-old career criminal is looking at a lifetime return to prison after less than four months of freedom.
Michael Jerome Roach II is charged with murder as a repeat offender and felony use of a firearm in the Sept. 26 shooting death of 28-year-old Curtis Lee Brown Jr. in Muskegon Heights.
Muskegon Heights Police Chief Joseph Thomas told 24 Hour News 8 that Brown was at the East Hills housing complex visiting with a woman and Roach.
A fight broke out between Roach and the woman and Brown intervened, according to police.
Roach left the scene and then returned, shooting Brown in the chest around 2:40 a.m.
Brown was taken to Hackley Hospital where he died from the gunshot wounds.
Roach was a suspect from the beginning and Muskegon Heights police worked with the county’s violent crime task force and the prosecutor to arrest Brown.
Brown’s criminal record includes time in prison starting in 2002 for breaking and entering a vehicle and assault with a dangerous weapon; larceny in a building, writing bad checks and resisting/assaulting a police officer in 2007; and finally weapons charges put him in prison in 2014.
State prison records show him being paroled June 8.
As 24 Hour News 8 reported previously, the victim also spent time in prison, getting out in July of 2016.
Brown was serving time for a 2013 assault with a deadly weapon and felony use of a firearm
He has a record that includes numerous gun crimes and assaults against citizens and police.
He pleaded guilty in 2013 and was sentenced to between three and 18 years, ultimately serving just more than three years.