FeedsGuity verdict reached on Westland murder case
A Wayne County jury found a Westland man guilty of second-degree murder earlier today in Wayne County Circuit Court. The verdict was unanimous.
Christopher Allunte Long, 19, had been charged with first-degree murder after 45-year-old Gerald William Dean, Jr. of Dearborn was fatally stabbed last August.
Dean had been doing some restoration work in a vacant apartment at the Country Court Apartments in Westland, located in the area of Ford and Wildwood roads. Police said Dean took a break from the work and asked Long to ‘take a hit’ on a cigarette Long was smoking and was refused. Long told police Dean mumbled a racial slur as he turned away.
Long went to his nearby apartment, grabbed a kitchen knife and returned to confront Dean, police said. However, Sgt. Thad Nelson of the Westland Police Department previously indicated in court that Long said Dean took a swing at him and that he responded to the threat by pulling out the knife and stabbing the man in the base of the neck with the knife.
“He then went back to his apartment and began to play video games,” said Nelson at the arraignment last year.The matter spent four days before a jury charged with determining Long’s guilt or innocence. When the members finished deliberating they found Long guilty of second-degree murder, rather than the first-degree murder charge originally sought by the prosecution. The difference between the two degrees is essentially premeditation. Second-degree murder is used for crimes that are committed quickly and without forethought while first-degree murder is basically reserved for cases that have evidence indicating the attack was planned out in advance.
Sentencing is scheduled to take place on July 21 before Judge Timothy Kenny. According to state sentence guidelines published on the web site of the Michigan Courts, www.courts.michigan.gov, second-degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison.
