Dec. 06--A Detroit judge said he will have to wait until January to resentence the man convicted of murder and arson in connection with the 2008 fire that killed Detroit firefighter Walter Harris.
Fire trucks and Detroit firefighters lined St. Antoine Street outside Third Circuit Court today. And more than 20 firefighters surrounded Harris' widow, Syri Harris, and son, Patrick Harris, as Judge Michael Callahan adjourned a hearing to reconsider sentencing for Mario Willis. He scheduled the re-sentencing for Jan. 24.
Callahan rescheduled the hearing after Willis showed up to the hearing from prison without a lawyer. He told the judge he had the money to retain a lawyer, but needed additional time.
"We're here to support our fallen brother, Walter Harris," Battalion Chief Vincent Gibson, 54, of Detroit, a 36-year department veteran, said outside the courthouse today.
A jury convicted Willis of second-degree murder and arson after testimony that he paid one of his employees $20 to set fire to a house owned by his then-girlfriend. Harris died trying to put out the blaze when the roof collapsed. The man convicted of setting the blaze, Darian Dove, was sentenced in 2010 to 17-30 years in prison.
Callahan originally sentenced Willis to 41 1/2 to 62 1/2 years on the murder charge, with about 10 to 20 years for arson, ordering him to serve both sentences at the same time.
But Willis appealed, and the Michigan Court of Appeals sent the case back to Callahan for resentencing. In the 2012 order, the Appeals Court questioned why Callahan disregarded the presentence investigation's suggested sentence of about 18 to 31 years in prison on the murder charge. In their decision, the Appeals Court judges said Callahan "did not justify the extent of its departure in this case."
"What we're here arguing about is the... difference between the sentencing guideline range of the original offense and the sentence that I imposed," Callahan said.
Harris' widow left the court today without commenting.
Gibson said that some firefighters are still have a difficult time dealing with Harris' death. He said putting out fires with an older workforce and inadequate staffing also makes him worry that they'll lose another firefighter.
"It's still very difficult, especially in these times of all the cutbacks, the manpower issues," he said. "It's been difficult more so for some of the guys that were there on the scene -- it's still a fresh wound."
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