Appeals Court: No New Murder Trial for Jean Pierre Orlewicz

Jean Pierre Orlewicz will not get a new trial for the first-degree murder, felony murder and dismemberment of a body convictions he received for the 2007 death of Daniel Sorenson, according to a just-issued opinion from the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Orlewicz, originally from Canton, is currently in the St. Louis Correctional Facility in Gratiot County, serving a life sentence on two counts of murder and a lesser sentence for dismemberment, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections' website. He was sentenced on May 12, 2008, just a few weeks after his accomplice, Alexander James Letkemann, is at Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee County, sentenced on April 23, 2008, to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder and less time for disinterment. Letkemann had testified against Orlewicz. Both men are 21.

They were convicted of killing Daniel Sorenson, 26, on Nov. 7, 2007, during a plan the trio had to rob an acquaintance, Adam Duwe, who had recently inherited $40,000 from his grandfather.

The three-judge Appeals Court panel deciding the case included Justices Amy Ronayne Krause, Karen Fort Hood and Pat M. Donofrio. Judge Ronayne Krause wrote the opinion, which is dated June 14, 2011.