GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The woman who was convicted of murder in the 2007 death of a Grand Rapids businesswoman and then granted a new trial has turned down a deal offered by prosecutors.
Under the deal, Robin Root would have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her landlord Janna Kelly. Her minimum sentence would have been 20 years.
Because she rejected the deal at a Monday hearing in Grand Rapids, she'll go back to trial on a charge of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The trial will likely happen in September.
Root was convicted in 2015 of first-degree murder Kelly's death. Last year, the Michigan Court of Appeals threw out Root's conviction, in part because investigators didn't read her the Miranda rights until after she confessed, and said she was entitled to a new trial.
Root admits she killed Kelly, but says it was an accident rather than premeditated murder.
Root told detectives that in December 2007, she and Kelly argued over back rent. She pushed Kelly and Kelly was knocked unconscious. She said she put Kelly in the truck of her car and left her there overnight. When she returned in the morning, Kelly was dead. Root then drove to Ottawa County, where she dumped Kelly's body in a blueberry field and set it on fire. Kelly's remains were found three months later.
Some DNA evidence in the case went untested for years. When it was finally rediscovered in 2014 and tested, it led authorities to Root.