Attorneys for two brothers convicted in the 1989 Newaygo County murder of Shannon Siders today asked the state Court of Appeals to overturn the convictions, arguing that testimony from a key witness never should have been allowed at trial.
Testimony from Ronald King, the half-uncle to convicted killers Matthew and Paul Jones, was based on conversations he overheard at an outdoor party, attorneys for the brothers argued.
“He could not remember who said what,’’ attorney Peter Van Hoek told the three-judge panel. “The trial court abused its discretion allowing it into evidence.’’
Van Hoek, who is representing Paul Jones, said prosecutors considered the testimony important to the case.
Attorney Kristoffer Tieber, who is representing Matthew Jones, says King was not a direct participant in the conversations and does not know the context in which the statements were made.
“It was hearsay,’’ Tieber argued. “You have to show the surrounding circumstances.’’
Assistant Attorney General Linus Richard Banghart-Linn asked the Appeals Court justices to affirm the convictions, saying jurors were afforded the opportunity to believe or discount King’s testimony.
“It’s probative in that no one would say this unless they were involved,’’ Banghart-Linn said. “It’s entitled to the weight the jury gives it. The jury is entitled to take that testimony for what it’s worth.’’
During last year’s trial in Newaygo County, King testified that sometime after July 1989, the brothers were at his home partying and started talking about Siders.
"One of them said that maybe they shouldn't have hit her so hard," King testified. “They said something about she should have given them what they wanted."
King also testified the brothers appeared to believe they got away with murder. "Mathew says that, 'well, we do not have to talk about that anymore - I think we are in the clear."'
A Newaygo County jury convicted Matthew Wayne Jones, 46, of first-degree murder. He was sentenced in July, 2015 to mandatory life in prison and is at the Carson City Correctional Facility in Montcalm County.
His younger brother, 44-year-old Paul Michael Jones, was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to between 30 and 75 years in prison and is at the St. Louis Correctional Facility in Gratiot County.
Investigators say the brothers killed 18-year-old Shannon Siders in July, 1989 after she rejected their sexual advances. A hunter found her body in the Manistee National Forest three months later. The brothers were interviewed, but no charges were filed. In 2011, a cold case team of investigators revisited the case, which some had called “unsolvable.’’
Investigators arrested and charged the brothers in June, 2014. The Court of Appeals is expected to rule in the case later this month or in early 2017.