Michigan man gets life without parole in 6 killings

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A man who fatally shot six strangers in southwestern Michigan was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with no chance of parole, but some loved ones warned him of a greater punishment.

“Someday when you die and you face God, he will make the ultimate judgment for what you’ve done,” Laurie Smith, who lost her husband and son in the February 2016 rampage, told Jason Dalton during the sentencing hearing. “All I can say is, I do not want to be you — not now and not then.”

Dalton, 48, pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder last month, just as jury selection was about to Dalton begin in his trial. Michigan has no death penalty, so he was guaranteed to receive the mandatory life sentence at Tuesday’s hearing in a Kalamazoo County court.

Dalton admitted shooting eight people in three locations in between picking up passengers for Uber. After his arrest, police quoted Dalton as saying a “devil figure” on Uber’s app was controlling him on the day of the shootings.

Four women were killed in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant: Barbara Hawthorne, Dorothy “Judy” Brown, Mary Lou Nye and her sister-in-law, Mary Jo Nye. Rich Smith and his 17-year-old son, Tyler Smith, were fatally shot while looking at a pickup truck in a dealer’s lot.

“Living without (them) is impossible,” said Emily Lemmer, the daughter of Rich Smith and sister of Tyler Smith, who months after their deaths carried their ashes in a box as she walked alone down the aisle at her wedding.

Abigail Kopf, who was 14 at the time, was shot in the head during the restaurant shooting and survived. Tiana Carruthers was shot and wounded in a residential area.

Dalton, a father of two, had worked as an insurance adjuster and had no criminal record before the shootings.