People v. Breining
| Decision Date | 02 June 2022 |
| Docket Number | 357633 |
| Parties | PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. TAYLOR STORM BREINING, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
UNPUBLISHED
Jackson Circuit Court LC No. 20-003035-FC
Before: Letica, P.J., and Markey and O'Brien, JJ.
Defendant has been charged with assault with the intent to murder, MCL 750.83, armed robbery, MCL 750.529, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (felony-firearm) MCL 750.227b, as a second-felony offender, MCL 769.10. In this interlocutory appeal, defendant appeals by leave granted[1] the trial court's order denying defendant's motion to sever the charges into two separate trials. We affirm.
Defendant's charges arise from events on Sunday, September 6, 2020, when defendant and codefendant, Samuel Boyer, allegedly engaged in what the prosecutor and the trial court have characterized as a "crime spree" in Jackson County. At the joint preliminary hearing for defendant and Boyer, evidence was presented related to three specific incidents.
The first incident involved an alleged armed robbery at a camper where Jonathan Whiting lived. Whiting personally knew both defendant and Boyer, having met them in jail. According to Whiting, in the early morning hours of September 6th defendant, Boyer, and three women came to his camper located at his parents' property and woke him up. Defendant and Boyer initially had their faces covered with bandanas. When Whiting opened the door, defendant was holding a black handgun, which he pointed at Whiting's face. Boyer also had a gun, which Whiting described as "like an assault gun" or a long rifle. Whiting later saw Boyer had a handgun as well. One of the women, whom Whiting identified as Boyer's girlfriend, was carrying what "looked like a sawed[-]off shotgun."[2]
The two other women were unarmed.[3] They were April Rudd and Christina Green (or McConnell). Whiting formerly dated Green, but she had moved out two weeks prior, after living with Whiting for a month. Green kept asking if her property was there. In particular, Whiting recalled that Green wanted some clothing. Whiting maintained that he had left Green's "stuff" at Rudd's garage. Rudd knew Green's items were in Rudd's garage because Rudd had texted Whiting about putting them there. That text was on Whiting's iPhone, which Green took. Whiting also recalled something being said about fishing tackle that Whiting had not paid for and belonged to Boyer, a third-party, or someone else.[4]
While keeping their guns pointed at Whiting, defendant and Boyer entered the camper and began taking Whiting's property, including Whiting's clothing, stereo equipment, tools, laptops, cell phone, fishing equipment, watches and jewelry, and "pretty much everything." The women waited outside the camper, running Whiting's belongings back and forth from his camper to their cars. According to Whiting, the group had two smaller, "dark colored cars." One of the vehicles was a Ford, but Whiting was not sure about the make of the other vehicle. In addition to taking Whiting's property, defendant and Boyer also demanded to know where Whiting kept his money. If Whiting did not answer their questions right away, they would "jam" their weapons in his "face even more." Whiting estimated the incident lasted 1½ to 2 hours and involved threats to shoot him. After defendant and his cohorts left, Whiting retreated to his parents' home and took a nap. He later reported the incident to his father, who called 911.
The second incident took place at Frank's Shop Rite in the Village of Grass Lake, about a mile away from Whiting's location. Frank Bednarski, the shop owner, arrived there between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. At approximately 9:20 a.m., he was in the process of leaving when he noticed his truck had several bullet holes in its passenger side. Reviewing the store's surveillance footage, Bednarski saw a blue Chevy Cruze enter the store's parking lot. The vehicle slowed down, a hand came out of the front, passenger-side window, and, after a brief "flash" from the hand, the car left the parking lot. Bednarski called 911 to report the shooting. Unlike Whiting, however, Bernarski did not know defendant or Boyer.
The third incident on September 6th involved the shooting of Austin Puhr. Like Whiting, Puhr knew both defendant and Boyer. Puhr met defendant in jail years earlier, and thereafter, sold him methamphetamine. Puhr was staying at the America's Best Hotel in Blackman Township when defendant contacted him on Facebook, inquiring whether Puhr "had anything." Puhr informed defendant that he had methamphetamine and they arranged to meet.[5] Defendant told Puhr that he had $100, which was sufficient to purchase about a gram of methamphetamine.
Puhr asked defendant to let him know when he was on his way. Later, a small blue Chevy car, which Puhr recognized as one that defendant sometimes drove, pulled up in the area of a Bob Evans restaurant[6] and Starbucks. Typically, Puhr would jump into defendant's car, make the exchange of drugs for money, and hop out. When Puhr jumped into the front passenger seat this time, he noticed defendant was driving and Boyer was sitting in the middle of the backseat. Boyer had never before been present during their prior drug transactions. Defendant then drove away with Puhr, telling him to give them "the shit." Puhr reported that defendant and Boyer did not have the money. Defendant also locked the car's doors and held onto Puhr's left arm to keep him inside the car. From the backseat, Puhr heard a gun being racked. Puhr turned around briefly and saw Boyer with a black handgun. Puhr managed to open the car door, jump out, and run. He did not recall much of what happened next, but he remembered running back toward the America's Best. Puhr was on the grass near Bob Evans when he saw the car double back toward him. Although Puhr remembered hearing gunshots, he did not recall feeling them. The next thing Puhr recalled was lying on the grass and looking up at the sky. Puhr was shot six times. After being transported to the hospital, Puhr was placed in a medically-induced coma for two weeks and underwent multiple surgeries to repair the injuries inflicted.
Jordan Cole witnessed the Puhr shooting. Cole offered a similar description of the event. At approximately 6:00 or 6:30 p.m., Cole saw a darker, "blueish," smaller-sized sedan swerve into a neighbor's yard. A man either jumped away from or out of the car's passenger side, and Cole heard gunshots. The man ran away, but the car made a U-turn in the middle of the street, following the man off the road and on to a field by the Bob Evans. The car looked like it was trying to chase the man down to run over him. After the man dove out of the way, Cole heard additional gunshots. Cole called 911. Cole also recounted that the driver of the vehicle appeared to be wearing a face covering, possibly a black-and-blue "neck gaiter."
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office investigated the second incident at Frank's Shop Rite. Detective-Sergeant Bryan Huttenlocker testified that law enforcement was aware of multiple incidents involving guns and a blue Chevy Cruze. The first incident involving Whiting appears to have been investigated by the Michigan State Police and Blackman Township. The third incident involving Puhr was also investigated by Blackman Township police, who contacted Huttenlocker to report a blue Chevy Cruze was involved. Detective Allen from Blackman Township also stated that he might be calling Huttenlocker later as they would probably want to conduct a joint investigation.
At about 12:30 a.m. on September 7th, deputies contacted Huttenlocker to report that they had some suspect information. In turn, Huttenlocker contacted Detective Allen to coordinate and head to a location. But further investigation determined that the Chevy Cruze they were looking for was not there.
Detective Allen came to that location and the Sheriff's Department had five names. Because Detective Allen was familiar with Rudd, who lived around the corner, he talked to her and she provided additional information. In the interim, Huttenlocker had also called in Detective Freeman to follow up with Whiting. Detective Freeman later provided two addresses, including Rudd's.
Thereafter, the police stopped and arrested Boyer, who had left the second address and was driving the blue Chevy Cruze. The police obtained a search warrant for the home, finding relevant items, including weapons.
The police also went to the home where defendant had rented a bedroom. Defendant refused to come out. The police obtained a warrant and the special response team arrested him.
The following day, Detective-Sergeant Huttenlocker interviewed both defendant and Boyer regarding the incident at Frank's Shop Rite. Defendant admitted he was in the blue Chevy Cruze on September 6, 2020, sitting in the passenger seat as he and Boyer drove "around aimlessly." Defendant explained that he had just purchased a new handgun. As defendant was looking at his cell phone, Boyer reached over him and shot multiple rounds from defendant's gun out of the passenger-side window.
During Boyer's interview, Boyer initially denied knowing who shot at the truck at Frank's Shop Rite. But, after being informed that defendant had identified Boyer as the shooter, Boyer confessed that he was driving the blue Chevy and fired through the passenger-side window.
On September 8, 2020, a felony complaint charging defendant with AWIM and felony-firearm as to the Puhr incident was filed. Over a month later, an amended felony complaint was filed adding charges of armed robbery and felony-firearm as to the Whiting incident along with discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, MCL...
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