NEWAYGO COUNTY, Mich. (WZZM) -- Prosecutors in Newaygo County have started to present the case against two brothers charged with murder.
Wednesday was the first day of this preliminary hearing, and we learned one of the prosecution's star witnesses was just 14 years old at the time Shannon Siders was murdered in 1989. That witness didn't come forward with information back then because another teen told her to keep what they saw a secret. It wasn't until 2012 that she helped investigators get their break.
Jenny Corrigan started cracking the case open with information she told a friend on an adult softball team two years ago. Corrigan testified Wednesday that in 1989 she was 14 years old and was driving dirt two-track trails with a 19-year-old man early in the morning on June 19, 1989. She said the older teen had booze in the car, and they came upon another car back in the dark woods.
"I was told not to get out of the vehicle," Corrigan testified, saying also that her friend and the person driving the other car then talked. "I can hear bits and pieces of the conversation," she said, testifying that Paul Jones was looking for someone.
The two cars separated, and then, two hours later, they met Jones on the two-track again. Corrigan says this time there was a lifeless girl on the ground near Jones's car.
"He went over to this person laying, grabbed her arm like it was nothing, and drug her away," she testified. The boy she was with got out to help, but was assaulted by Paul Jones.
"As soon as, like, Mr. Jones, like, tosses this person into the vehicle -- then the vehicle take off."
She and the boy left the woods. Corrigan says the 19-year-old made her promise never to tell anyone what they witnessed.
"'It was an accident, it was an accident; they are probably taking her to the hospital right now,'" Siders testified the man said. "'I am not supposed to be with you; I'm 19 and you are 14. Do not say an f-in word.'"
Also in court, a friend of the Jones brothers told the judge that late in the night on July 18, he and several other teens including Shannon Siders gathered at the EZ Mart in Newaygo.
The group loaded into three cars and spent the night and early morning hours racing around the county. That man says Shannon Siders and Matt Jones were passengers in the car driven by Paul Jones.
The state Attorney General's office and Newaygo County Prosecutor are presenting this case jointly. The preliminary hearing is expected to finish Friday.
