Attack by Mask Man, Appropriately named Savage.

A 19 year old woman was working the reception desk of a Hartland, Michigan Motel Best Western at 5:30AM on June 4, 2016. On her shift she’s been washing bedding and such and just finishing fixing the free breakfast. She’s only been on job for a week and third day on her own. It’s still dark. Sun isn’t up for another half hour. There’s someone at the locked front door.

Instead of going to the audit room that had the video screen of the front door with buzzer to allow entry, the new employee walked up to the locked front door. She saw a man with a ski mask on. For many of us we might have hesitated to allow him entry. She thoughtlessly and yes, foolishly opened the door for the masked man, turned her back on went back to the receptionist desk. The masked man walked through the lobby and it appears went to the bathroom.

Shortly thereafter, our masked man comes back and goes behind the receptionist desk and points a pistol at the receptionist, Lindsey*. He orders her to empty the money drawer and asks for her purse. They both go back to the audit room where the purse is. He orders her to lie down on the floor, whereby he peppers sprays her face.  This as you’d expect gives her searing pain in her face and eyes. This will wear off in an hour or so.

The masked man takes her wallet and car keys and walks out to her parked car and drives off. Once she felt good enough, Lindsey first calls her manager who doesn’t answer then calls 911. Sounds like Lindsey needed more training. Not her fault.

The robbery and car-jacking of the 2006 gray Chevy Impala are reported. When asked the color of the assailant she says she saw tan skin but he wasn’t black, she knew that. There were 16 security cameras at the motel including the parking lot. He was identified as an African-American. The black masked assailant shows up in many of them and we can see him drive off in the Chevy Impala.

About six hours later there’s a report 80 miles away of a masked driver in a gray Chevy Impala driving erratically. Then a woman with a couple of her kids beeps her horn after him; he slows down to menace her and she got a real good look at him. She calls 911. Flat Rock police locate a gray Chevy Impala parked at a CVS Pharmacy strip mall.

The rookie police officer parks behind the car; he sees he’s wearing a black mask. He steps up to ask for the standard driver’s license and registration. The officer has a body camera. We see that seated in the car, the driver, a black male, is immediately uncooperative. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid”, he says, acting like he’s been interrogated for little good reason. He says he doesn’t need to provide license and registration, since he’s parked and not driving. He doesn’t provide an answer how he got in the parking lot in the first place. You would naturally assume he’d been driving. The officer threatens arrest, but I suppose it’s not illegal to sit in a car with a black mask on.

Officer calls for backup. Another Flat Rock police officer shows up in a minute. He speaks to the black male from the other side of the car and basically in a much less threatening tone allows the driver a free pass, saying he’d not done anything illegal. The rookie tells black male he’ll be arrested if he tries to drive. Both Cops leave. One question, did you run the license plates? No.

As the rookie police officer ran the automobile’s license plates, they find out that the car had been stolen so they round back to the CVS Pharmacy parking lot. The car is empty and they go store to store in the strip mall. Finally they find the suspect in the Smoke Shop on his phone. He’s arrested.

He’s identified as Broderick Savage (formerly Siewerth(sp?)). In the car we find Lindsey’s wallet and backpack and the keys were left in the backpack. Also located were pepper spray, mask and some money about $321, said to be similar to the amount at the motel.

Evidence at trial was the security video and the body camera video of the arresting officers. We find out as well that the hand gun was a hand gun sized and shaped BB gun painted black to give it appearance of being a hand gun. This gun did not function. The jury was instructed that it was not necessary for it to function to still be a chargeable offense. The charge was the use of…well a BB gun in a robbery and carjacking.

The most dramatic testimony was Lindsey’s. She was traumatized by the incident and in fact never worked at the motel again. She broke down several times in her testimony. This truly was a shock that she’s yet to recuperate from.

The defense attempted to argue that the robbery and carjacking at the hotel were two separate incidents. The man caught in the car in Flat Rock was not the same man who had committed the crimes in Hartland. He was simply a victim of circumstance. But coincidences were far too much to reasonably dismiss.

I find out he had two priors and girlfriend lived nearby. That’s how he got there without car. And then needed the victim’s car.

The defendant was convicted on all counts of armed robbery, auto theft and assault with dangerous weapon.   

Sentencing has been postponed as of the writing of this blog.

*named changed to protect witness.