GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Nearly 11 years after the murder of a Grand Rapids businesswoman, her killer will learn her punishment.
Robin Root is expected in Kent County Circuit Court Wednesday afternoon, where she will be sentenced for the December 2007 murder of her landlord, Janna Kelly.
Kelly’s daughter is expected to address Judge Joe Rossi before he issues Root’s punishment.
A jury last month found Root guilty of second-degree murder after hearing testimony from a neighbor and friend who said he witnessed a volitale argument between Root and Kelly shortly before Kelly’s disappearance.
This was the second time the case has gone to trial. Root was previously sentenced to life in prison without parole for the crime, but a state appeals court threw out her first-degree murder conviction, saying her statements to detectives were inadmissible at trial because police didn’t read Root her Miranda Rights before she confessed.
Kelly disappeared on Dec. 4, 2007. Her burned body was found in an Ottawa County blueberry field in March 2008.
DNA evidence that went untested for years led police to Root in July 2014.
In a taped interview on April 22, 2015, Root told officers she pushed Kelly during an argument over back rent. Root said Kelly, who was her landlady, was knocked unconscious.
Root told police she loaded Kelly into the trunk of her car and left her there overnight. Root said when she returned the next day, Kelly was dead.
Police said Root then dumped Kelly’s body in the blueberry field and set it on fire.