New Sentencing Ordered in Dearborn Heights Porch Shooting

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DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MI – A Dearborn Heights man who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for shooting and killing a teenager on his porch in 2013 should get a new sentencing hearing, the Michigan Court of Appeals said Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the court upheld the conviction of Theodore Wafer, who was convicted of second-degree murder, manslaughter and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the shooting of stranded motorist Renisha McBride, 19.

But Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Dana Hathaway erred in August 2014 when she said in her ruling that she couldn’t impose a sentence that would “go below the guidelines,” the panel said.

“Because the trial court’s compulsory adherence to the guidelines range was erroneous, in keeping with (case law) we remand for … proceedings,” the judges — Cynthia Stephens, Joel Hoekstra and Deborah Servitto — said in their written opinion.

Wafer claimed he acted in self-defense and testified during his 11-day trial that ended Aug. 7, 2014, that he was afraid for his life as McBride, bloody and dazed after crashing her vehicle nearby, banged on his front and side doors about 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2013.

He was jolted awake and scrambled in his confusion for his shotgun, which he kept stashed in the closet, he said.

At his sentencing hearing, Wafer tearfully apologized to McBride’s family.

“I apologize from the bottom of my heart.I am truly sorry for your loss,” he said, adding that McBride was “too young to leave this world.”

“I only wish that I could take this horrible tragedy back,” he said.

At the time of the shooting – which occurred just a few months after George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the death of Trayvon Martin – comparisons were made about the striking similarities of the Martin and McBride cases.

Wafer is white and McBride was black.

The opinion is below.