Jury convicts man of murder in the death of Mich. hunter
ST. JOHNS — A Grand Blanc Township man was convicted on murder and weapon charges Thursday in connection with the death of a hunter in Bath Township more than five years ago.
A jury in 29th Circuit Court deliberated about 18 hours over three days before finding Thomas Olson guilty of second-degree murder and felony firearm possession
Olson, 35, was charged with killing Chong Yang, 68, on Nov. 16, 2018, while they were both hunting at the state’s Rose Lake complex during the second day of firearm deer season. Yang was shot in the back of the head.
Some members of Yang’s family, who have attended many court proceedings and sat through the trial, were emotional after the verdicts came in.
Joseph Yang, a family member and local attorney, said the verdicts don’t take away the pain from Chong’s loss but provide some degree of closure.
“The question still remains, ‘Why?,’ ” an emotional Yang said. “To be shot in the back of the head senselessly, for no apparent reason, we still want to know why.”
Much of the family were living in Lansing at the time of the killing but have since moved to the east side of the state, he said.
Olson’s attorneys, Michael Manley and Michael Beer, who contended before trial that prosecutors charged the wrong man and argued during the trial that the state did not prove its case, declined to comment on the verdicts.
Olson’s jury deliberated for about five hours on Tuesday, most of the day on Wednesday and a little over half of the day Thursday.
His trial began on Feb. 13 and concluded with closing arguments on Tuesday morning.
The state Attorney General’s Office said
scientific evidence, including GPS location data obtained through search warrants and a bottle of deer spray found in the general area of Yang’s body, linked Olson to the killing. Olson’s DNA was found on the bottle, and he had acknowledged it was his.
The location data showed that a device owned by Olson was in the area where Yang was shot in the back of the head more than five years ago.
Prosecutors also introduced text messages shared between Olson and his hunting partner that day in which they joked about the killing or the investigation. Prosecutors contended the messages amounted to admissions, but defense attorneys have characterized them as jokes made in poor taste.
Prosecutors also said Olson searched for news about the incident on his cellphone before police had publicly revealed that a hunter was killed.
During his closing argument, Assistant State Attorney General Richard Cunningham said he couldn’t prove a motive for the killing but suggested Olson fired a shotgun in the direction of Yang with the intention of scaring the Hmong-American hunter.
Manley argued there was no evidence Olson ever was close enough to Yang to have fired the shot and said prosecutors failed to prove their case. He raised numerous questions about a police investigation that he said either wasn’t thorough enough or overlooked evidence pointing toward another man who was eliminated by police as a suspect.
The trial began on Nov. 13 and included three days of testimony by prosecution witnesses. The defense introduced dozens of exhibits but rested its case on Tuesday without calling any witnesses.
Olson and another man, Robert Rodway, were charged with first-degree, felony murder in late 2022 in Chong Yang’s death, and an alternate count of second-degree murder was later added. Cunningham essentially argued a second-degree murder theory but also suggested Olson dropped the plastic bag with the deer spray while carrying out of the woods items he had taken from Yang.
The first-degree, felony murder charge was based on a theory that Yang was killed during the commission of a larceny. His gun and other possessions were missing when his body was found. They were not recovered by police.
The charges against Rodway were dismissed without prejudice last year by the Attorney General’s Office.
Joseph Yang said the jury realized Olson’s statements in the text messages were admissions of guilt.
“The jury saw through the distractions and got to the gist of the case,” he said.
Second-degree murder is punishable by any term of years up to life in prison. Judge Shannon Schlegel canceled Olson’s bond and set sentencing for April 8.