Overview
- Jerome Kowalski, 79, pleaded no contest on Thursday to two counts of open murder and two counts of felony firearm in the deaths of his brother and sister-in-law in Livingston County.
- The plea was made under a Cobbs agreement with the court, which the Michigan Attorney General’s Office opposed.
- A degree hearing will determine whether the convictions are for first- or second-degree murder, and no date has been set.
- His earlier conviction was vacated in 2019 after the original trial judge, Theresa Brennan, was found to have committed misconduct, including an affair with the case’s lead Michigan State Police investigator.
- Kowalski was arrested a week after the May 2008 killings in Oceola Township and spent 13 years and eight months in custody before being granted bond in 2023.