KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — A man who confessed to going on a violent Kalamazoo County crime spree last year has been sentenced to prison.
Matthew Steppenwolf was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison Tuesday.
Last month, Steppenwolf pleaded guilty, but mentally insane to charges of armed robbery, second-degree arson, discharging a firearm into a building causing injury, carjacking and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Other charges were dropped in exchange for his plea.
The crime spree started when he left a Comstock Township gas station without paying for less than $10 of fuel he had pumped while armed with a shotgun. After, he set fire to a Cooper Township home. Nobody was injured in the fire.
He then went to Kalamazoo and threw a Molotov cocktail at a house and opened fire on the building while yelling racial slurs. A woman in the home was shot in the chest.
Officers found Steppenwolf leaving the scene of the shooting in a minivan, but were unable to detain him, as he was ignoring traffic signals and traveling over 100 mph.
After getting away from police, he carjacked a woman at the intersection of Drake Road and Croyden Street.
Witnesses later reported he had crashed the stolen car in Climax Township. Responding officers arrested him without incident at the scene of the crash.