FeedsParents speak out about daughter’s death
The parents of a murdered Westland woman spoke out in court on Thursday about their frantic search for their missing daughter.
Edward and Barbara Green of Westland testified in the courtroom of 18th District Court Judge Sandra Ference Cicirelli about hours surrounding the death of their daughter, 22-year-old Laci Ann Green, who was found dead near her home on May 7.
The couple’s recollections were required as 25-year-old Robert James The First Howard of Dearborn Heights—Laci Green’s ex-boyfriend—went before Cicirelli for a preliminary hearing on a charge of first-degree murder. At the hearing, the prosecution must convince a judge that there is sufficient evidence a crime was committed and that the person accused committed that crime to warrant further legal action.
Barbara Green spoke of the last time she talked to her daughter the previous evening, when Laci Green had looked into her room from the hallway told her goodnight, that she was going to bed, and that she loved her. However, she said that the sound of the family dogs barking drew her to the window at about 2:30 a.m.—about two hours later—to see what was wrong and she said that she saw Howard walking in the next-door-neighbor’s yard toward her home. After watching the defendant walk toward the back of the house out of sight and then come back three times, Green said that she decided to wake her daughter.
“I went to her room to get her up, but she wasn’t there,” said Green. “Her purse was, her car was in the driveway, but she wasn’t there.”
Concerned, she said that she woke up her husband and then went downstairs to speak with Howard.
“His first words to me were, ‘I hope you don’t think I had anything to do with this,’” said Green.
After an initial search of the area and several unsuccessful attempts to contact Laci Green, Howard said that he went into the house to call the police. Barbara Green testified that after she had left repeated messages on her daughter’s cell phone, the defendant had a reaction that startled her.
“He kicked the chair and he said, ‘She must be with that other guy’,” she said. Her husband later testified that Howard had expressed a similar sentiment in his presence.
Edward Green told Cicirelli that he when he first spoke to Howard the night of his daughter’s death he received an unexpected response.
“I said, ‘Robert Howard, where is my daughter,” he recalled. “He said, ‘She’s with him,” referring to a man Laci Green had recently began seeing socially.
Barbara Green told Cicirelli that she asked Howard to stay and help her search for her daughter “to keep him there” and even sent him up to her daughter’s room to get her keys so they could search her trunk, but that he had ultimately left just before the police arrived.
While prosecuting attorney Sabrina Johnson sought to build a case against Howard that focused on jealousy for his alleged involvement in Laci Green’s death, defense attorney Bertram Johnson questioned the accuracy of the information provided and challenged that much of it was based on hearsay. He also questioned whether the Greens might be biased against Howard, who is African-American, because of his race—a line of questioning that earned him an emphatic rebuke from Cicirelli.
In addition to the Greens, the court also heard testimony from a cabdriver who brought Howard to the area. The finding of both the assistant medical examiner who handled the case and the relative who identified Laci Green were accepted for purposes of the preliminary hearing only. When the hearing resumes on July 31, further testimony is expected as the prosecution and defense attorneys cross-examine additional witnesses. If Cicirelli were to be convinced that there is sufficient evidence, the case would then move on to Wayne County Circuit Court.
If tried and convicted of first-degree murder, Howard could face up to life in prison.
