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Woman gets prison for killing terminally ill Grand Rapids man in May 2014

The 63-year-old victim was killed inside his Heritage Hill apartment; he was receiving hospice care for lung and kidney cancer.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A woman who admitted to killing a terminally ill man by cutting his throat was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for the 2014 murder.

Heather Laureen Wright, 51, pleaded guilty in March to second-degree murder.

The victim, 63-year-old Glenn Converse, had been dead for more than a day before his body was found in late May of 2014.

He was terminally ill with lung and kidney cancer.

Converse and Wright were acquaintances; what led her to kill the victim remains a mystery.

“Miss Wright is in a much better place than she was when this case first started,’’ defense attorney Charles Clapp said during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday.  “She’s extremely remorseful for what happened.’’

Kent County Circuit Court Judge Paul Denenfeld said circumstances of the case “are frankly a little unclear to the court.’’

“The facts are that Miss Wright killed a terminally ill man,’’ Denenfeld said. “But a neighbor ended up discovering the body. The discovery was that the throat had been cut. And as I understand it, the defendant and the victim were actually social friends. So, what went wrong is a little unclear to me.’’

Grand Rapids police responded to the victim’s apartment on Washington Street near Prospect Avenue SE after receiving a 911 call just before 1:30 p.m. on May 26, 2014.

It took several years before Wright was prosecuted. She was initially charged last July with perjury; an open murder charge was added weeks later.

Wright is no stranger to the criminal justice system; she has numerous arrests and prosecutions for crimes ranging from aggravated assault to domestic violence.

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