Joshua Lee Keyzer, 16, is expected to enter a plea May 11 in Allegan County Circuit Court in the case in which he is accused of raping and fatally stabbing his cousin near Doan’s Lake in Wayland Township last summer.
Keyzer supposedly will agree to a plea deal that likely will result in a less-than-life sentence. A county judge determined during a court hearing Friday, April 10, that Keyzer is competent for trial.
Keyzer has had two separate competency exams since the June 21 stabbing death of Kassandra Keyzer, 21. His attorney and Allegan County prosecutors have worked out a plea deal in which the teen will plead guilty to felony murder and attempted criminal sexual conduct.
Prosecutors have acknowledged they do not plan to pursue a sentence of life in prison without a chance for parole. Such a sentence is mandatory for adults convicted of first-degree or felony murder. A probable sentence of 25 to 40 years instead has been discussed.
Judges at sentencing, however, are not bound by earlier agreements about incarceration levels.
Court documents have revealed the details of the gruesome incident last summer, in which Keyzer, then 15, was said to have written “My Bad” in blood on a basement wall near the body of his cousin.
Police were summoned to the Wayland Township home of Keyzer’s grandmother just south of Wayland after she called 911 to report that her grandson had stabbed her in the neck. Upon arrival, they observed Keyzer covered in blood, brandishing a knife on the roof of the house before he lost his footing, fell to the ground and was apprehended.
Troopers then found the body of Kassandra Keyzer in the basement with a stab wound to the front of her neck and a “deep laceration starting from her chin to the middle of her right cheek.”
Sharon Keyzer, 67, the grandmother, recovered from her stabs wounds, but died of cancer last December.
