By Jacob Swiecicki, Staff Reporter.
A Saginaw County jury has convicted Michael Lawrence II, 25, of first degree felony murder of a former Delta student. The victim, Angelica Olivarez, was strangled to death on April 15, 2013 in her Saginaw home.
The verdict came Friday afternoon at the conclusion of a three-day jury trial in the courtroom of Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson.
Olivarez was 23 at the time of the killing. Her child with the defendant, Michael Lawrence III, was three at the time and was inside the house at 1622 N. Bond St. during the homicide, making him the key witness. His recorded testimony was played in court rather than putting the child on the stand.
Several witnesses did take the stand. Pedro Delgado, a man who was working at an auto shop near the residence, found little Michael wandering the streets of Saginaw the afternoon of April 15, and as Delgado approached the young child, Michael stated “My daddy killed my mommy.” Michael lead Delgado back to his home, where Delgado saw the body in Olivarez’s bedroom and called 911.
“I opened the door and saw her laying there,” stated Delgado. “I already knew.”
Testimonies were also given by the first police officers on the scene as well as members of the Olivarez family, who quoted Michael as repeatedly saying “My daddy killed my mommy,” and “Daddy punched mommy in the nose.”
Saginaw County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Boyd presented testimonies and evidence from Saginaw County Forensic Pathologist Dr. Kanu Virani, who conducted Olivarez’s autopsy and Barb Andrews, a forensic interviewer who questioned little Michael, now five, shortly after Olivarez was killed.
Dr. Virani stated that the body showed no signs of any beating other than the marks on Olivarez’s neck which is consistent with “manual strangulation”.
Lawrence’s defense attorney, Edwin Johnson III, argued that the testimony given by little Michael was not corroborated by any other evidence or testimonies, stating “The flaw in the story is that Mikey’s description of the events didn’t happen”.
The jury issued a guilty verdict on all three of Lawrence’s charges which were first degree murder, unlawful driving away of a vehicle, and child abandonment. The jury did not convict Lawrence on a charge of first-degree premeditated murder, but found him guilty of first-degree murder in commission of a lesser felony.
The murder charge alone has a mandatory life sentence without parole, a sentence Lawrence is already serving for the drive-by shooting of 6-year-old Lay’la Jones. He was a fugitive from the Jones case at the time Olivarez was killed. He was previously convicted, along with three other suspects, of the child’s murder; Lawrence was the lone defendant in the Olivarez case.
Lawrence’s sentencing date has yet to be announced and will be given by Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson.
Delta College English professor Kathy Marchlewski recalls Olivarez as a good student. “One of the things I remember that we talked about was the issue of violence in Saginaw,” Marchlewski said, recalling other former Delta students, who were lost to violence that year.
