PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The man jailed after a chase that ended inside a Plainfield Township retirement home had been sentenced to life in prison for murder nearly 30 years ago before being resentenced just two years ago.
A source close to the investigation confirmed the suspect as Cody Skaggs, 46.
Skaggs was described as the mastermind in the June 1996 murder at a restaurant in Wyoming. He was 16, just three days shy of turning 17, when he and two others robbed Lennie’s Place, ending in the shooting death of the night manager, Richard Morris. Skaggs had recently been fired from the restaurant. While police say he orchestrated the robbery and provided the gun, he wasn’t accused of pulling the trigger.
Skaggs originally got life in prison with the possibility of parole for second-degree murder, armed robbery and felony firearm. The other two have already served their time.
“I take full responsibility for my actions. I do not deny what I did. I am sorry,” Skaggs said at his sentencing in 1997.
Then in 2023, a Kent County judge resentenced him to 25 to 75 years, leading to his release.
It wasn’t a so-called juvenile lifer case, in which some young convicted killers have been set free based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Those cases involved only mandatory life without parole sentences, which the Supreme Court found was cruel and unusual punishment.
In this case, according to Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, the state Supreme Court had ruled that Skaggs’ original sentence was too harsh.
Skaggs has gotten in trouble since his release. He got 15 days in jail in July for retail fraud and had a domestic violence case against him dismissed earlier this year, both in Kent County. Most recently, he was wanted on a bench warrant from Kent County Circuit Court for failing to appear in court in August on a bad check case. He had been accused in April of trying to cash a fraudulent $4,000 check.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office said deputies had been looking for Skaggs for absconding parole; state prison records list the absconding date at July 27.
He was arrested Thursday after the sheriff’s office says he fled from deputies, struck several vehicles and broke into a retirement home north of Grand Rapids.
The chase started near 5 Mile Road and Plainfield Avenue NE. A detective later spotted the car at River Grove Retirement Community in the area of Jupiter Avenue and West River Drive.
Deputies say he broke into the building, leading them to fire less-than-lethal bean bag rounds to subdue him. They say he was armed with a knife.