The Rest of the Story

April 18, 2007

(EDITOR’S NOTE: For those readers who wonder what “ever happened to ….,” Northern Express is offering a new periodic column: The rest of the story. We’ll publish updates as they come about. If you have a special interest in a particular story, give us a call at 947-8787.)

The Wolf Man of Brethren

John Patrick Sutherland died in a tragic showdown over the attempted micro-chipping of his 14 wolf dogs in September of 2005, but his animals are in good hands, said his girlfriend, who often goes to visit them.
Sutherland, who went by the name of “Wolf,” was fiercely protective of his wolf dogs, and refused to let an animal control officer on his property to tranquilize and micro-chip them as required by a 2000 state law. A SWAT team surrounded the property for hours, during which time Sutherland stayed near his tent and talked to the sheriff face-to-face and on a cell phone.
After four hours, Sutherland walked into the open to pick up a police phone to negotiate, but was immediately shot with a beanbag gun and went down. Deputies told investigators that they shot to kill, believing that Sutherland had drawn his gun and shot a deputy. Sutherland was hit in the right cheek, stomach and chest.
At the time the Northern Express ran its series in late 2005, the ballistics report hadn’t been completed and there was some question of whether the deputy was wounded from Sutherland’s gun or “friendly fire.” The bullet was not immediately found because it had gone clean through the deputy’s hip.
The ballistics report wasn’t issued until August of 2006—nearly a year after the shooting—because Sutherland’s gun was badly damaged from gunfire and had to be rebuilt. The Michigan State Police report showed that at least two bullets had been shot from Sutherland’s Colt Defender, which had more bullets remaining. Two bullets from his pistol were ultimately found on the property, including one lodged in the corner of the house, said Stone, who exonerated the SWAT team’s lethal response a few months after the incident.
Diana Weir, Sutherland’s girlfriend at the time, is still intensely bitter and doesn’t believe the ballistics report nor the prosecutor’s interpretation of events. She recalls seeing Sutherland’s head whip to the left after the first shot came from the direction of a sniper, and saw his hands go up in the air as he fell down. She believes he was shot in the head and wasn’t capable of shooting his gun. She has not filed suit because she understands that only Sutherland’s 20-year-old son could do that. He no longer talks to her.
The death was senseless, she said, since the warrant gave Sutherland 30 days to comply with micro-chipping the wolf dogs. “They insisted on doing it that day. Why?”
Weir drove around for several weeks after the shooting with a sign on her car, “John still lives within my heart.” She took it off, she said, because police cars were following her around Traverse City.
After Sutherland’s death, the wolf dogs were taken to a 34-acre animal sanctuary in Muskegon County run by the Western Michigan Society for the Protection and Care of Animals. The shelter houses domestic animals such as cats, goats, and a miniature donkey, as well as an assortment of wild animals, including kinkajous, African servals, and coatimundis. The wolf dogs are permanent residents there.
“It does help that they’re close enough that I can spend time with them—I know the people who run the SPCA and they’re real glad I come down,” Weir said.
Loki, the friendliest and largest wolf dog, died shortly after Sutherland’s death, probably because of internal bleeding from chewing the fence at the sanctuary. The black fox also died and the coyote has a spacious home in North or South Carolina, living with a family who already owned a coyote, Weir said.
Weir has maintained a relationship with the wolf dogs, visiting them a few times each month, and petting them inside their kennels. “They’re doing wonderfully,” she said.

(Anne Stanton’s original story on the Wolf Man of Brethren won a Michigan Press Association prize in 2006.)

Appeals Court agrees to hear pros-ecutor’s argument in murder trial

Was Jim Gainforth too blind to shoot a young man at a Shell Mini-Mart in the rainy, pre-dawn hours of a July morning in 1984?
Circuit Judge Tom Power ruled in December that that key question was never raised in the 1985 murder trial, and Gainforth should be granted a new trial.
Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Al Schneider objected to Power’s ruling, and promised to appeal. He followed through, and last week, the state Court of Appeals agreed to hear his arguments.
At the crux of the case is Gainforth’s claim that his original defense attorney never presented his military records that he couldn’t hit a target because of a vision defect and was discharged from the military.
Prosecutor Al Schneider filed a brief that contended that Judge Power made a mistake in evaluating the testimony of Dr. Kenneth Musson, an ophthalmologist.
“It’s my position that Dr. Musson said that although Gainforth’s eyesight would have prevented him from hitting the center of a [military] target, he certainly could have aimed the rifle sufficiently to hit a human target,” Schneider said in a recent interview.
Judge Power noted at the December hearing that he was persuaded by the “objective evidence” of military records that Gainforth repeatedly failed to sight a rifle in the military because of a defect in the eyes’ architecture—a blind spot in the center of his vision, which prevented him from being able to fixate on the pin on the rifle sight.
The go-ahead on a new trial is arguably more vital to Gainforth’s ultimately gaining freedom than if Gainforth is retried. That’s because Gainforth’s original conviction hinged on the testimony of two men who have recanted their original statements. If there were a new trial, there would be scant evidence to go on.
The Court of Appeals will likely hear the appeal in late summer or early fall.
In the meantime, Gainforth, who received a life sentence with no parole, will remain in prison.

‘Anything is possible’

One year has passed since Dawnette Harrell met her boyfriend in the parking lot at Cherryland Center in Traverse City, and was never seen again.
A recent TV news report said that the Michigan State Police had widened the search nationally for the 28-year-old woman, but it was misleading—Harrell has been listed in the database of the National Center for Missing Adults almost since the beginning of her disappearance, said Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Mark Harris.
Harris said the investigation is still active. Police don’t know whether Harrell is dead or alive, but it is clear that she is not using her personal information anywhere in this country. She might be using another person’s identity or she might have moved to a different country. “Anything is possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, billboards have appeared throughout Traverse City, appealing for people to call the Michigan State Police at 946-4646 if they have any information.
Harrell, who was early into a pregnancy, left a letter that said she was going to Mexico with the “real” father of her baby, but the letter did not ring true to those who knew her, because they had never heard of this “true love” before.
Another man, with whom she worked at a discount cigarette store, is one suspect among several. Harrell had told him he was the father of the child and they had frequent discussions on what they were going to do about the baby prior to her disappearance.
He told police that he last saw Harrell on April 2 at 3 a.m. when they met up at the Cherryland Center. Harrell’s car was later found by her brother-in-law, who frequently drove through the parking lot and just happened to see her car there.