Page 2 — Thursday, April 14, 2022 — The Hastings Banner
She had been shot twice with a.22 rifle in
the chest and abdomen, according to the
police report. The murder occurred behind
the house owned by Charles James, where
Lafey had been living with James and two
other men, Dustin Stephens and Harold
“Danny” Butcher Jr.
Jacob Roys, a digital crimes analyst with
the Michigan State Police Computer Crimes
Unit, testified Tuesday that he extracted a call
log and a video from a cell phone police said
belonged to Lafey.
The video showed “a woman laying on the
ground and it appeared she was being beat-
en,” Roys told Prosecutor Julie Nakfoor Pratt.
In pre-trial proceedings, defense attorney
James Kinney of Hastings had argued that the
video was “too prejudicial for a jury to review.”
Nakfoor Pratt agreed the video is disturb-
ing, but told Schipper that two of the main
charges brought against Lafey – open murder
and torture – were based on that video.
In February, Schipper ruled it could be
admitted as evidence.
That video was shown in court Tuesday
afternoon.
Before it was shown, Schipper warned
people in the courtroom about the nature of
the recording and the need for silence and
emotional restraint.
“I need to see and hear everything,” he
said, instructing them to leave the courtroom
if they felt overcome by what they were
viewing.
The video was shown on a large screen
affixed at an angle to one long, side wall of
the courtroom.
The first image is a small, clothed figure
lying at an odd angle on the ground, her face
partially covered in snow. As the video pro-
ceeds, an assailant – whose voice can be
heard – mocks the severely injured woman,
curses her and tells her to die as he beats her
to death. Testimony confirmed the identity of
the figure as Brickley.
In her opening statement Monday, Nakfoor
Pratt said Lafey literally stomped on Brickley
50 times.
During the video, which lasted about 12
minutes, two people who had initially cho-
sen to stay rushed from the courtroom, clear-
ly overcome by what they were witnessing.
Of those who remained, many put their
hands up to their faces as tears streamed
from their eyes.
Lafey did not look at the screen.
According to testimony thus far, after
Brickley was killed, Lafey showed several
people the videotape of Brickley lying help-
less on the ground as she was beaten to death.
While her assailant does not appear on
camera, his voice can be heard and, at times,
his legs are visible as he kicks and stomps on
her body.Lafey’s parents testified Monday.
Joseph Ketola of Nashville, Lafey’s father,
said his son called him and told him he had
killed Brickley.
“I didn’t believe him,” Ketola said. “‘It
was like...Yeah, right. You’re lying.’”
Ketola said he tried to question Lafey
about it and when he learned that Lafey
needed help hiding the body, he told him,
“‘You’re not going to drag a body down the
street with no one seeing.’ ... I went back to
watching TV.”
Then, Ketola continued, “Charlie (James)
showed up to the house and said he had seen
a film.”
The two men agreed to seek out Nashville
Police Chief Chris Underhile and tell him
what they knew.
“I don’t want to be charged with conspira-
cy after the fact,” Ketola said.
James testified that Lafey had told him he
was going to kill Brickley. “I told him he
wasn’t going to do that on my property –
nowhere around my property,” James said.
James also identified the rifle that he said
Lafey used to shoot Brickley. It was admitted
as evidence during his testimony Monday.
That rifle belongs to him, he said.
On the night of the murder, James testified
that he left his house between 7 and 9 p.m. to
go to Charlotte.
Lafey and Brickley were sitting on his
couch in the living room side by side, “and
everything looked fine,” he said.
When James returned after 10 p.m., he
walked in the house and he recalled that
Lafey was eating a sandwich. Lafey told him,
“I got something to show you.” Then he
brought up a video on his cellphone screen
“and handed me the phone,” James testified.
“I seen a girl dying, her teeth missing. It
was Grace. At first, I thought it was a joke.”
But then he could see it was real, James
continued. “She was trying to get up and
when she tried to get up, he kicked her,” he
said.
“I gave him the phone and said, ‘Get out of
my room.’”
James said he left the house then and went
to his girlfriend’s place where he “stared at
the wall all night.” He didn’t speak to his
girlfriend about it. “I guess I just couldn’t
believe it,” he said.
The next morning, he went to Ketola’s
house. Joe Ketola seemed “shocked like he
couldn’t believe she died neither,” Jamesrecalled. That’s when the two men sought out
Chief Underhile.
“I still have nightmares about it some-
times,” James said.
“And yet you waited until the following
day to take any action to assist Grace,” Nak-
foor Pratt pointed out during his testimony.
“That’s correct,” James replied.
Dustin Stephens, 36, testified Tuesday
morning that he had lived in the James house
with Lafey and he was there with him the
night Brickley was killed.
Stephens said he was at the residence with
Brickley, Lafey and Butcher at the time of
the murder. He recalled that Lafey took
Brickley outside with him, telling her that he
had stashed heroin outside.
He took the.22 caliber rifle with him, say-
ing it was to protect him from coyotes, Ste-
phens said.
After some time had passed, Stephens and
Butcher became concerned when the two
hadn’t returned. Stephens said he tried to
message Grace, but got no response. Then
Lafey returned to the house alone and showed
Stephens a video of him killing Brickley,
Stephens said.
Lafey asked for help hiding the body.
Stephens testified that he never wanted to
help Lafey hide Brickley’s body, but he
agreed to do so to keep him calm and he took
Brickley’s phone and backpack “as an act of
good faith.”
Stephens said he called his ex-girlfriend,
Colleen Rice, to come to the house so he and
Butcher left with her.
They told Lafey they needed to clean
out Rice’s car to make room for the body,
then Stephens, Rice and Butcher left with-
out assisting him in hiding the body, he
said.
At some point, Stephens said, Rice noticed
the shirt he was wearing appeared to have a
bloodstain on it. He said he wasn’t sure what
the stain was, but he decided to burn the shirt
as a precaution against being implicated in
the crime.
Stephens said none of them called the
police. He was dropped off at his uncle’s
house and stayed there, he said.
When Chief Underhile took the stand, his
testimony detailed police arrival at the James’
residence where they found Lafey.
Underhile said he, Sgt. Richard Frazer and
Deputy Kevin Erb followed a trail in the
snow on the Guy Road property whereBrickley’s body had been dragged into a
wooded area.
The police body camera documents their
search through the cold and snow and the
conversation about where the trail might lead
them until one of the officers stops.
“You find her?” another says.
Then there is a long silence followed by
the words “son of a gun” as the officer real-
izes it’s Brickley’s body.
Frazer testified as to what he observed
about the body and that he had “no doubt”
she was dead.
When the officers took Lafey into custody,
they found two spent shell casings in a small
pocket.
He volunteered to police that those were
the two shells he had shot Brickley with,
Frazer said.
The trial was to resume at 8:30 a.m. today
in Judge Schipper’s courtroom on the second
floor of the Courts and Law Building in
Hastings.Carveth Village
of Middleville
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Sgt. Richard Frazer of the Barry County Sheriff’s Office testifies
about finding the body of Gracyn-Michael Kay-Candace Brickley.Andrew Lafey, 22, of Nashville, opted for a bench trial at
the last minute Monday, after 120 potential jurors had been
summoned to serve in the first-degree murder/torture case
against him.Charles James of Maple Grove Township identifies the boundaries of his property on Guy Road, where the murder occurred.Barry County Prosecuting Attorney Julie Nakfoor Pratt poses questions to Charles
James as the trial begins Monday.
Since the defendant chose to have a
bench trial, Barry County Judge Michael
Schipper will make the determination of
guilty or not guilty.JUDGE, continued
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