TYLER KORTE - 8 yo (2009)/ Convicted: Father's Fiance; Melissa Memmer - Shelby IL

A Macomb County Circuit judge today remanded the first-degree murder
case against a Shelby Township woman to district court after her
attorney withdrew from the case. Earlier this month, a Shelby
Township District Court judge ordered Melissa Memmer to stand trial on
charges of first-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend's son,
8-year-old Tyler Korte. Memmer, 30, was previously convicted in
2004 of attempting to smother Tyler while her boyfriend was away. She'd
been serving a 25- to 50-year prison sentence. The murder charges were
added after Tyler slipped from a long vegetative state and died in
December 2009.Memmer's attorney, Kenneth Vernier, said while reviewing the case
file he discovered that Tyler's birth mother was one of his former
clients. Vernier said he noted the conflict in district court, but was
ordered to continue representing Memmer. Circuit Judge Peter Maceroni agreed today that Vernier's history with the victim's mother was a conflict. A new defense attorney will be assigned to the case.

Macomb County briefs, 5-6-2011

Published: Thursday, May 05, 2011

Attorney seeks plea deal

The new attorney for a former Shelby Township woman accused of murdering her fiance’s 2-year-old son said he will seek a plea deal for his client.

Melissa Memmer, 31, has already served about seven years of her 25- to 50-year term for attempted murder and child abuse for suffocating and severely injuring Tyler Korte in 2004 in her home. Tyler died in December 2009, and Macomb prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder, punishable by life in prison without parole.

Dan Garon, who recently replaced Memmer’s previous attorney, said Thursday following a pretrial in Macomb County Circuit Court he will file for a plea policy deviation in the case to the administration of Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith, who typically would not offer a plea deal under this circumstance.

Garon said under a plea to a lesser charge, Memmer still would have to serve at least 25 years but could be eligible for parole “someday.”

Prior to her first trial, she turned down a plea deal that included a recommended nine-year sentence.

http://www.macombdaily.com/articles/2011/05/05/news/doc4dc367fdc59f5577019865.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Woman convicted of murder 1, felony murder in death of fiance's 2-year-old son

October 3, 2011

Melissa Memmer, 31, of Shelby Twp was found guilty by a Macomb County jury Friday of 1st degree and felony murder in the asphyxiation of her live-in boyfriend's toddler son. The 2-year-old had persisted in a vegetative state for approximately five years before dying of brain damage.

Tyler Korte was the son of Anthony Korte, who was Memmer's housemate and fiance in 2003 when the criminal incident occurred.

Memmer admitted that as discipline for some transgression she had tied the child's arms behind his back and left him lying on his stomach in an upstairs bedroom. The prosecution claimed that Memmer also gagged Tyler with a bandanna and pressed a pillow against his face.

The assault left Tyler's brain starved for oxygen, seriously damaging it.

In 2004 Memmer was tried and convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and child abuse. She was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison.

Memmer was in the Huron Valley Women's Correctional Facility when, on December 26, 2009, Tyler Korte died. She was subsequently charged with his murder. The defense maintained that Memmer did not intend to harm Tyler, but the jury evidently did not believe that.

Sentencing has been scheduled for November 9, but there will be no suspense. A conviction of either murder 1 or felony murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

http://www.examiner.com/article/woman-convicted-of-murder-1-felony-murder-death-of-fiance-s-2-year-old-son

Former Shelby Township caregiver gets life sentence for boy's death

Published: Thursday, November 10, 2011
By Jameson Cook, for The News-Herald

Tyler Korte died 7 years after she tried to suffocate him

A brief, somber sentencing hearing may have ended the long, legal saga of Melissa Memmer and her involvement in the death of Tyler Korte.

Memmer, 31, formerly of Shelby Township, was sentenced in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens on Wednesday to mandatory life in prison without parole for 8-year-old Tyler’s death.

Memmer previously was sentenced to 25 years in prison for first-degree child abuse for Tyler’s original injuries in 2003 when he was 2 and under Memmer’s care. He survived in a vegetative state for more than seven years before dying in December 2009.

An appeal by Memmer is expected, although her attorney, Dan Garon, conceded he didn’t see any issue that an appeal courts could find to overturn the jury’s verdict.

Memmer declined to make a statement at the hearing. At her March 2004 sentencing, she told the judge, “I am sorry for what I did to Tyler. From the bottom of my heart, I didn’t mean to hurt him. This will haunt me for the rest of my life no matter where I am.”

Tyler’s parents and grandparents did not attend Wednesday’s event.

“They just want to put this behind them,” assistant Macomb prosecutor Michael Servitto told the judge. “They don’t want to experience it again.”

Judge Peter J. Maceroni commented the most, although he merely echoed Servitto’s remarks in September about whether he was “pleased” with the first-degree murder verdict.

“How can anybody be pleased?” Maceroni said. “A young and healthy boy who had everything to look forward to was killed, and a young woman, in her early 30s, is going to spend the rest of her life in prison.” Continued...

http://thenewsherald.com/articles/2011/11/10/news/doc4ebca167237c3468885704.txt