GRAND RAPIDS (WHTC-AM/FM) – Robin Root’s “day in court” resumes today in Grand Rapids.
The 55-year-old Grand Rapids woman won a new trial after a guilty verdict in her initial 2015 trial on first-degree murder charges was thrown out by the state Court of Appeals over a Miranda Rights issue. Root is accused of knocking out 60-year-old Janna Kelly in an apparent landlord-tenant-related altercation in 2007, throwing the older woman into a car trunk and leaving her overnight to die. Root then allegedly drove Kelly to a field south of Grand Haven, poured gasoline on her body, and then dumped the vehicle. Kelly’s body was found three months later. Root was arrested in April of 2015 by cold case investigators, and her trial was shifted to Kent County Circuit Court where, after hearing five days of testimony, a jury returned a guilty verdict.
The accused rejected a new prosecution offer of a guilty plea for second-degree murder, as the defense is seeking a reduced charge of manslaughter in the case.
