Michael Madison

Case record: Michael Madison

Identity and custody status

Michael Madison (born October 15, 1977) was held in custody as a suspect in at least three murders.

After a brief standoff with police at his mother’s house, Madison was taken into custody without incident and remained confined in the same lockup as Ariel Castro.

Timeline

• July 19, 2013 — Police responding to reports of a foul odor investigated a garage leased to Madison and discovered the decomposing body laying inside.
• July 20, 2013 — Two more bodies were found: one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house.
• July 22, 2013 — Madison was charged with three charges of aggravated murder; a $6 million bond was ordered and he waived his right to a preliminary hearing.
• July 22, 2013 — Madison appeared in a municipal court wearing a purple jail-issue jumpsuit and did not enter a plea.
• July 26, 2013 — Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson said two victims were strangled and cause of death for the third was attributed to “homicidal violence by unspecified means.”
• July 29, 2013 — A grand jury charged Madison with raping his victims and abusing their corpses.

Background

Madison had a criminal history described in connection with attempted rape in October 2001.

In October 2001, he dragged an 18-year-old woman down an East Cleveland street, threw her behind a house, and prepared to rape her. A police officer pulled up within minutes and Madison bolted. Officers later arrested him. He later pleaded guilty to attempted rape and was sentenced to four years in prison. After he completed treatment for sex offenders, he returned to East Cleveland. While classified as a sex offender, he listed his address with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department as his mother’s in Cleveland, rather than an East Cleveland apartment where he actually lived.

Madison was described as a registered sex offender.

The offence

Police described the slayings as involving decomposing bodies wrapped in layers of plastic.

Madison was accused in connection with the slayings of three women whose decomposing bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags around his suburban Cleveland home. The bodies were found 100 yards (91 m) to 200 yards (180 m) apart, and they were each wrapped in plastic bags.

Two of the victims, Terry and Sheeley, were found to have been strangled. Gilson attributed the cause of Deskins’ death as not yet determined at one point, and later attributed the cause of death of Shetisha Sheeley to “homicidal violence by unspecified means.” Gilson said the advanced decomposition prevented authorities from determining a specific cause of death for Shetisha Sheeley.

Police said the method was the same: each body was wrapped in several plastic bags. East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton described a belief that there might be more victims and said the killings could have happened over a 10-day period.

Investigation

Police received reports of a foul odor from Madison’s garage. Detective Sgt. Scott Gardner said the garage where the first victim was found was leased to Michael Madison. Authorities obtained a search warrant for Madison's apartment and found “additional evidence of decomposition.”

Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson identified strangulation as the cause of death for Shirellda Terry and Angela Deskins. Gilson described ligature strangulation as meaning an object such as a rope or cord were used. Gilson declined to go into detail, citing the investigation, and he declined to estimate when the women were killed, stating: “That’s at the heart of the investigation.”

Police and volunteers searched for additional bodies in the neighborhood’s abandoned homes and found nothing further after the initial discoveries. Cadaver dogs were assisting in the search. Authorities received tips from the public and hoped to get more.

East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts said: “This is an ongoing investigation. We’re nowhere near done.”

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton told CNN: “We are dealing with a sick individual, and we have reason to believe that there might be more victims.”

Shaeaun Child, a neighbor who tipped police off about the foul smell, said: “From what I know, he was an OK person when I first met him. And then from there, he actually, he had a lot of conflicts with different girls that he knew,” and “When he real upset with someone, he get real loud. You could hear him like two blocks away.” Child also said: “After my conflict with him, I always watched him. I never turned my back because you never know.”

Police chief Ralph Spotts told The Plain Dealer that Madison stopped speaking with officers soon after his arrest, but the chief said Madison left open the possibility that there might be other victims.

Arrest and custody events

Madison was arrested July 19 after police discovered the remains of Shirellda Terry, 18, in a garage behind his apartment in East Cleveland. He was taken into custody without incident after a two-hour standoff with police at his mother’s home in Cleveland. Gilson stated Madison was arrested after this standoff.

Madison was confined in the same lockup as Ariel Castro, the former school bus driver who pleaded guilty to abducting and holding three young women captive in his home for roughly a decade, during which they were starved, beaten and sexually assaulted.

Court appearance and charges

On July 22, 2013, Madison was charged with three charges of aggravated murder. His bail was set at six million dollars and he waived his right to a preliminary hearing. The municipal court judge ordered Madison to remain held on a $6 million bond.

At a brief court appearance, Madison did not enter a plea.

Prosecutors also sought additional charges connected to rape and abuse of corpses. On July 29, 2013, a grand jury charged Madison with raping his victims and abusing their corpses.

CNN also reported that Madison faced additional charges and that an indictment included rape and aggravated murder charges, and that the indictment did not contain the death penalty, though prosecutors could choose to seek a superseding indictment that would include the specifications.

Sentencing

No sentencing outcome for Madison appeared in the provided material.

Victims

Three victims were identified as:

• Angela Deskins, 38-year-old resident of Cleveland, reported missing in June 2013.
• Shetisha Sheeley, 28-year-old woman, missing since September 2012.
• Shirellda Helen Terry, 18-year-old woman, last seen July 10, 2013, leaving a Cleveland elementary school where she had a summer job.

Police identified Angela Deskins as the second body found and described that she was believed to have been buried in Madison’s backyard. The body of Shetisha Sheeley was discovered in a weeded lot two houses from Madison's apartment. The remains of Angela Deskins were discovered in the basement of a vacant house near his home.

Other details

• Madison was described as “an individual who had no regard for human life” by local officials at a news conference.
• East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton called the killings a “tragedy” and the “most unspeakable of atrocities known to mankind.” He also said: “Three individuals minding their business and being good… killed senselessly by an individual who has no regard for human lives.”
• East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts said he believed the women had been killed in the last 6 to 10 days, but that they could have been missing for longer.
• East Cleveland has about 17,500 residents and is seven miles northeast of Cleveland, Ohio; the city occupied three square miles.
• One report said police were unable to identify any of the victims initially, and the Cuyahoga County medical examiner said: “identification and final cause of death may take several days” given the advanced state of decomposition. The same report said the medical examiner’s office was not asking people with missing relatives to provide DNA samples.