by P.D. Lesko

According to Trial Court case files, on April 20, 2005 Hilary J. was a rising senior at the University of Michigan. With two roommates, she rented an apartment at 832 Packard Ave. On that evening, Hilary was in her bedroom, asleep, alone in her apartment. Her roommate had gone out to a party and the third roommate had already moved home at the end of the semester. In May 2005, Hilary testified that at approximately 10 p.m., she was awakened because the overhead light in her bedroom had been turned on. She sat up and then “got the attention” of the man in her bedroom by clearing her throat. That man, Ricky McCain, turned around and stared at the young woman. According to the then 20-year-old woman’s testimony, McCain, six feet tall and 160 pounds, raised his hand and eyebrows as if to indicate, the woman told the Assistant Prosecutor, “you caught me and I’m leaving now.” McCain had broken into the women’s apartment. He was arrested when the victim identified him in a “line-up” photo emailed to her by the Ann Arbor Police Dept.

On April 13, 2023, Ricky McCain, 55, allegedly broke into Jude Walton’s home on Chapin on the West Side of Ann Arbor; among other felonies, he stands accused of allegedly murdering the 54-year-old woman.

Court records suggest Walton’s death was, in large part, the result of prosecutorial deals, and a judiciary that ignored AAPD and probation reports that repeatedly labelled accused murderer Ricky McCain a “danger to society.” Reports in McCain’s case files show police repeatedly recommended that McCain be sentenced as a habitual offender. For example, documents preserved in the case file for the 2005 home invasion case against McCain alerted presiding judge Donald Shelton (ret.) that sentencing a habitual offender allows sentences 1.5-2 times longer than the maximum permitted.

Court records show that Trial Court judges Shelton (ret.) and Kuhnke, instead, handed down increasingly lenient sentences.

Court case files revealed that between 2005 and 2022, alleged murderer Ricky Dewayne McCain appeared multiple times before Washtenaw Trial Court judges, including most recently Chief Judge Carol Kuhnke. During those years, McCain was tried and sentenced on a variety of capital and non-capital felony charges. Charges included 1st and 3rd degree home invasion (2005), assault with intent to rob while armed, assault with intent to rob while unarmed (2006), as well as failure to register as a sex offender (2004 and 2021) and tampering with an electronic monitoring device (2021).

Judge Donald Shelton (ret.) signed off on then County Prosecutor Brian Mackie’s orders that resulted in the dismissal of capital and non-capital felony charges against McCain in both 2005 and 2006. Mackie submitted orders for Shelton’s signature that a 1st degree home invasion charge be dismissed (the incident that involved Hilary J.) and a 2006 charge of intent to rob while armed.

As a result, McCain was sentenced on lesser charges, and three times (twice the decision of Shelton and once the decision of Kuhnke) not sentenced as a habitual offender.

Former Pennsylvania District Attorney Thomas Hogan has a graduate degree in criminology, and a law degree from the Univ. of Virgina. He writes in a 2022 article published in The City Journal: “Academics take a negative view of stiff sentences. Some argue that longer sentences have no effect on recidivism. Other scholars argue that longer sentences are criminogenic—that is, they cause people to be more likely to commit crimes when they are released. Advocacy groups argue that shorter sentences actually reduce future offending.”

Hogan’s article, titled “Why Incarceration Matters,” goes on to examine a 2022 study conducted by the United States Sentencing Commission. “Using its access to massive amounts of data about thousands of federal criminal defendants over many decades, decided to test the effects of incarceration on recidivism. The commission chose to study 32,135 federal criminal defendants released in 2010.”

The study found that “defendants receiving a sentence of more than 60 months (five years), the odds of recidivism were 18 percent lower than a matched group of prisoners receiving shorter sentences. For defendants with sentences of more than 120 months (ten years), the odds of recidivism were 29 percent lower.” 

Had Shelton in 2005 sentenced McCain as a habitual offender (he had a 1988 felony conviction), as an AAPD report in McCain’s judicial file had recommended, McCain would have been sentenced to 4.5-37 years, instead of 3-15 years. In 2021, Judge Kuhnke like Shelton before her, did not sentence McCain to the minimum number of years recommended by Michigan law, or sentence him as a habitual offender; Judge Kuhnke agreed to Prosecutor Eli Savit’s recommendation that McCain be sentenced to just one year in jail.

Failure to register as a sex offender is a misdemeanor, but tampering with an electronic monitoring device is a felony.

Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act of 1994 mandates up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 for failing to register as a sex offender the first time. For a second conviction of refusing to register as a sex offender, the Act calls for up to seven years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. Tampering with an electronic monitoring device in Michigan carries a maximum sentence of two years and up to a $4,000 fine, or both.

Chief Judge Kuhnke presided over McCain’s third felony conviction. Michigan law allows the sentences of habitual offenders guilty of three felonies to be increased by 200 percent. Instead, Prosecutor Savit and Chief Judge Kuhnke put a “danger to society” back out on the streets in relatively short order.

Between 2021-2022 McCain served just 11 months in the County Jail for refusing (a second time) to register as a sex offender, and for tampering with his electronic monitoring device. For those crimes, Michigan law would have permitted Savit to recommend to Kuhnke that she sentence McCain as a habitual offender. This would have meant 7 years in prison for the misdemeanor failure to register (a repeat offence), 4 years in prison for the felony (tampering with the electronic monitoring device), and a fine of $9,000.

The result of the Prosecutor’s sentencing recommendations and the judicial officer’s decision to sign off on those sentencing recommendations, was that Ricky McCain was handed the opportunity to allegedly break into Jude Walton’s home on April 13, 2023. The one year sentence given to Ricky McCain by Savit and Kuhnke gave McCain the opportunity to reenter the community and to murder Jude Walton.

Savit and Kuhnke are not alone in foisting felons onto an unsuspecting community of county residents.

In Nov. 2022, Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton issued a public press release in response to reporting, questions and public criticisms from County residents about his use of felons, including sex offenders and murderers, as substitutes for deputies, and as “mentors” for school children. Clayton said: “Unfortunately, these loud voices are intent on denigrating…community-based organizations run by black men who are or have been justice impacted. Repulsive and hypocritical, this [the questions and criticisms] must be exposed for the discriminatory and, ironically, unjust thinking that it is. Do we believe formerly justice involved individuals should be restored to the community?”

The results of the United States Sentencing Commission’s 2022 study are a blow to progressive prosecutors such as Washtenaw County’s Eli Savit who push for lower sentences for just about every crime, even violent ones, claiming that reduced sentences will not cause more crime. 

Since 2020, there have been 39 murders in Washtenaw County. Since Clayton was elected, violent crime in the County has crept up steadily and the Sheriff’s clearance (solve) rate has remained between 25-30 percent. Michigan State Police data show that under Clayton’s leadership, over 50,000 crimes impacting residents (in a county with approximately 285,000 adults) have gone unsolved.

Habitual Offender “A Danger to Society”

In 1988, Ricky Dewayne McCain was convicted of three counts of 1st degree criminal sexual conduct (including personal injury) by a Wayne County judge. He served 11 years of a 12 year sentence.

Wayne County Trial Court records show that after his 1999 release from the 1988 prison sentence for criminal sexual conduct, on Aug. 21, 2004 McCain was charged with failure to register as a sex offender. Nine days later, McCain was out of jail on a $10,000 PR bond. On Oct. 19, 2004, McCain pled guilty but failed to appear at his next court date. He forfeited his $10,000 personal bond.

In 2006, in Washtenaw County McCain faced two capital felonies: assault with intent to rob while armed, and assault with intent to rob while unarmed. On Aug. 30, 2006, Judge Shelton (ret.) signed an order submitted by then County Prosecutor Brian Mackie dismissing the more serious charge of attempting to rob while armed.

A 2006 probation report produced in response to two charges of robbery, including attempted robbery with a weapon, labels McCain “a danger to society.” Cash bail was set at $25,000 in that case, the equivalent of $37,400 in 2023 dollars.

Ricky McCain appeared before Chief Judge Carol Kuhnke in June of 2021 on charges that he had failed to comply with sex offender reporting duties and had tampered with an electronic monitoring device. Despite McCain’s repeated refusal to comply with sex offender registry requirements over the course of almost a decade, as the result of a sweetheart deal from County Prosecutor Eli Savit, Kuhnke sentenced the repeat offender to a total of one year for both crimes; Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act of 1994 would have allowed the judge to impose a years-long sentence and a large fine. McCain was released from jail on August 19, 2022, according to records from the Michigan Dept. of Corrections.

Court records show that in Sept. 2022, McCain appeared again before Chief Judge Kuhnke. The 2021 charges (failing to comply with his reporting duties as a sex offender and for tampering with his electronic monitoring device) were reinstated.

Just weeks before Walton’s murder, McCain had appeared in the Wayne County Trial Court charged with uttering and publishing. This felony carries a maximum 14 year prison sentenced in Michigan. McCain was released on a PR bond and never showed up for his Mar. 27, 2023 hearing. A warrant for his arrest was recommended but not issued.

Less than one month later, on April 17, 2023, Ricky McCain, 54, a non-compliant registered sex offender and convicted felon, was arraigned on charges of open murder, first-degree home invasion, and criminal sexual conduct — assault with intent to commit sexual penetration, related to the murder of Jude Walton. Walton was found dead around 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 13, at her home in the 200 block of Chapin Street in Ann Arbor. Officers said they found Walton, semi-nude and wrapped in a sheet, after being asked to do a welfare check.

McCain had allegedly gained entry into Walton’s home on April 13, by breaking a window.

Jude Walton was a founding member of the Ann Arbor Independent Community Police Oversight Commission (ICPOC) and worked to help Ann Arbor’s homeless population. Police have not said whether Walton knew her assailant.

In 2006 and 2021, Judges Shelton and Kuhnke ordered McCain to provide a DNA sample and fingerprints. According to officials with knowledge of the investigation, it was these records that led the AAPD to McCain.

The alleged murderer was arraigned before Magistrate Elisha Fink in the 14A District Court. Ricky McCain faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, if convicted.

McCain stood mute, and a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf. He is being held at the Washtenaw County Jail without bond.

A probable cause conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. April 27 at 14A District Court.

In a public release on Apr. 17, 2023, Ann Arbor Police Interim Chief Aimee Metzer said in a Facebook post on the AAPD’s page, “I know the community still has a lot of questions surrounding her [Walton’s] murder, and while we won’t be able to disclose all the details right now, I can say there is no longer a threat to this community.”