Overkill: Avenging the Death of Deputy Grant Whitaker

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The Arrest

Updated December 20, 2016

John Kelsey knows he is a suspect. He's been watched from unmarked cars parked near his home on Morton Road since December 8. On the 10th, a Wednesday, Michigan State Police detective Mike Peterson calls Megan Johnson, the mother of John's two children. He gives her his phone number and she gives it to John, but John has lost his phone and doesn't get a new one until Friday. He calls Peterson at about 4:00 p.m. Friday and arranges a meeting in Lansing at 10:00 a.m. Monday. He tells Peterson he will be picking up his kids - 8 year old daughter Taylor and 10 year old son Jonathon - that evening so he can take them to a party on Saturday. It is a birthday party for the kids' cousin, the son of John's sister Alicia Waggoner, and is to be held at a hotel in Howell.

At about 7:00, Brent Cunningham receives a call from Kelsey saying he needs a ride. He is in Brighton, and he needs a ride to his Morton Road home in Stockbridge, then to his parents home. Brent picks up Kelsey on Main Street in Brighton. When they arrive at John's house, Megan Johnson is there with the children. John gathers clothes and other items for himself and the children and at about 7:30, they head for his parents' home in Brent's Ford Escort. Along the way, Brent brings up the high speed chase in which Deputy Whitaker was killed, but John doesn't want to talk about it and tells Brent to be quiet. John seems nervous. He says it wasn't him who fled the police.

John knows Brent because he has done some work with him. Brent is staying in Pinckney with Ryan Bishop, who John grew up with. Earlier that day, the State Police raided Ryan Bishop's mom's house. They questioned his family about John, but the reason for the raid was to serve a child support warrant on Ryan.

John's parents live in the country, southwest of Brighton, about 23 miles from John's house. Brent is driving, John is in the front passenger seat and the kids are in back. Soon they notice 6 or 7 sets of headlights following them - unusual for a country road. (V6-128) They follow for miles without being signaled to pull over. MSP Detective Sergeant Darren Green is in one of the cars. He receives a call saying there is now probable cause to effect an arrest, but they wait for a marked car to arrive. Finally, on King Road in Livingston County, Brent pulls off to the side of the road and John gets out. John sees by the badges and uniforms that there are officers from the U.S. Marshall service, Michigan State Police, and Ingham County Sheriff - a "multi-jurisdictional taskforce." (V6-125) He tells them there are kids in the car and tries to move away from the car as far as possible, saying "Not in front of my kids, not in front of my kids," (incident report) but officers still approach with guns drawn - both hand guns and automatic rifles - and shouting commands. The kids are crying hysterically. The police force John to lay face down on the ground. They handcuff him and then place him temporarily in the car of state trooper Hayes from the Brighton post, the first marked car to arrive at the scene. (incident report). When Trooper Adamczyk from the Lansing Post arrives, custody is transferred to him. It is because officers were waiting for arrival of that marked car that they hadn't initiated the arrest sooner; all of the 6 or 7 cars following the Escort were unmarked.

John asks the police to call his sister Christina. She comes and picks up the children at the scene of the arrest. The next day, John's mother takes them to the party.

Brent Cunningham is found to have a suspended license and advised to call someone to pick him up. The Ford Escort is left at the scene of the arrest.

John is transported to the Lansing State Police Post at 7119 Canal Road. Trooper Adamczyk collects John's personal property: a wallet, a pen, tooth paste, tooth brush, jeans, jacket, long john shirt and pants, black belt, black shoes, black stocking cap, phone, phone charger and $300 cash. Nothing incriminating, so it is odd that Assistant Prosecutor Roth asks Adamczyk about it during the trial. (V6-137) It is possible that the prosecution wanted very much to believe - and lead the jury to believe - that Kelsey was fleeing the state to avoid arrest. That suspicion may have been the reason the procession of unmarked cars followed him Friday evening although they knew he had an appointment with Detective Peterson on Monday. Roth even tries to block testimony that an appointment was scheduled (V6-5) in the belief, it seems, that it would make Kelsey appear more sympathetic to the jury.

From the Lansing MSP post, John is taken to the Livingston County jail in Howell rather than the Ingham County jail in Mason, where Deputy Grant Whitaker worked.

Kelsey is arraigned on Monday, December 15, at the 55th District Court in Lansing, charged with driving with a suspended or revoked license causing death and first-degree fleeing police. (LSJ, 12/15/2014) At a preliminary hearing on December 23, he is ordered to stand trial. (LSJ, 12/24/2014)