First Of Five Men Sentenced To Prison In Deaths Of 2 Hamtramck Women
DETROIT (WWJ) - The first of five men convicted in the gunpoint abduction and murder of two Hamtramck women has been sentenced to prison.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Vonda Evans sentenced Miguel Rodriguez to 20 to 35 years in prison for his role in the deaths of 18-year-old Abreeya Brown and 22-year-old Ashley Conaway.
During sentencing, Evans said she wished she could have given Rodriguez a tougher sentence to make it so that he would have to spend at least half of his life behind bars.
Rodriguez, who earlier plead guilty to second-degree murder, has 42 days to file an appeal and his attorney says that discussion is underway. Whether or not he will file an appeal, however, is unknown.
Three other men in the case -- Brandon Cain, Reginald Brown and his cousin Jeremy Brown -- face mandatory penalties of life in prison without possibility of parole for first-degree murder. A third man, Brian Lee, faces up to life in prison for second-degree murder. All four men, who were convicted earlier this week, are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 21.
Brown and Conaway were forced into a car trunk at gunpoint on Feb. 28 after being abducted from their home on Andrus Street in Hamtramck. Their bodies were found almost a month later in shallow graves in a wooded area near 6 Mile Road and Telegraph in Detroit.
A Wayne County Medical Examiner testified that the women were bound with duct tape and shot in the head at close-range.
Authorities say the women may have been targeted for telling police about a shooting prior to their abduction.
The Brown cousins are unrelated to Abreeya Brown.
Stay with CBSDetroit.com and WWJ Newsradio 950 for the latest.
