Man Found Guilty In Grosse Pointe Park Neighbor's Murder
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - A man has been found guilty in the murder of his neighbor who was beaten and strangled in her Grosse Pointe Park home last May.
The prosecution called 40 witnesses to prove that Myron Williams was addicted to crack, and so desperate for the drug that he was willing to kill for it.
A cord was found around 35-year-old Sabrina Gianino's neck when her body was found in the flat she shared with her boyfriend on Wayburn Street, near Jefferson — just east of the Detroit city limit. The Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head.
Prosecutors said, after killing Gianino, Williams walked to his nearby dealer's house and where he traded the victim's laptop and some other belongings for $30 and a crack rock.
Defense attorney Charles Longstreet II says Williams maintains his innocence and will file an appeal.
The defense argued that Williams's fingerprints and DNA were not found at the scene, also pointing out that a mallet found in Gianino's boyfriend's car was never tested as a possible murder weapon.
A Wayne County Circuit Court found Williams guilty of first-degree murder and unarmed robbery. Michigan law sets a mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole for first-degree murder.
Sentencing is scheduled on April 8.
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