Appeals court rejects request in murder case

Michigan Court of Appeals has rejected a request to overturn the case of a man involved in a fatal shooting in Flowerfield Township nearly three years ago.

Theron Hunt will serve the rest of his life in prison without parole after his jury trial conviction in St. Joseph County Circuit Court. On Jan. 15, 2020, Hunt was found guilty of felony murder in the November 2018 fatal shooting of Kevin Johnson.

Hunt’s attorney raised a series of issues that claimed Hunt’s rights had been violated from the preliminary examination to impermissible comments about the law by then-prosecutor John McDonough.

Hunt, now 42, was convicted of felony murder, which requires only that he helped to plan or participated in a felony in which someone dies, not that he actually committed the murder.

Hunt turned down a plea offer of armed robbery as a second offense to go to trial.