Man convicted of murder-for-hire in Sterling Heights – Macomb Daily

A man was found guilty of murder-for-hire in the killing of a Sterling Heights man and a lesser crime in the nonfatal shooting of a second man in a separate incident, according to court records.

James Deshawn Williams, 51, faces life in prison when sentenced Feb. 6 by Judge Terrence Berg in U.S. District Court in Detroit after he was convicted of murder for hire and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of 28-year-old Marco Berisha. in 2016. , who was shot and killed while sitting in a vehicle outside his home at the Golfpointe Village condominiums at Plumbrook and Schoenherr roads.

Williams was hired to carry out the murder. No one else was charged.

Williams and another man followed Berishai home, where police responded to a report of shots fired at 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2016, and found him shot in the chest, U.S. prosecutors said. He was later pronounced dead at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township.

Williams was found guilty after a three-day trial in federal court in Detroit.

The convictions mean Williams used and caused another person to use interstate commerce – a telephone and a car – and accept money to commit murder.

Judge Berg ruled in August 2023 against the dismissal of Williams’ attorney so that the case would be dismissed and likely transferred to state court based on the contention that Williams’ use of cell phones and vehicles did not cross state lines and therefore should not be subject to federal jurisdiction.

Burt ruled that the use of cell phones and automobiles are “tools” regulated by the federal government.

“The mobile phone—by its very nature—almost always impacts interstate commerce by causing signals to cross state lines,” he wrote.

In a separate incident, he was also convicted of participating in a murder-for-hire along with two other men in the 2016 shooting death of another man in Detroit after he and two of his groups followed him from an unidentified barber shop, records say. According to the court document, the accomplices shot the wrong man because they were at the wrong barbershop. The victim survived the shooting.

Williams was acquitted of conspiracy charges, records show.

Williams, who investigators say also goes by the nicknames “Straw” and “Straw,” is already serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty to a separate indictment in 2019 on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and crimes. firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. In that case, Williams shot a man twice in the head at a crowded White House nightclub on Shelby Road in Detroit in October 2014. Authorities said Williams indicated his motive was that the victim had stolen drugs from his drug dealing partner. The victim survived, but nine months later the victim was driving on Lodge Highway when he was chased at high speed and Williams shot him in the back. His wounds left him paralyzed.

In addition to the Sterling Heights Police Department, Berishai was investigated by the FBI, including special agents and task force officers from the Livonia Police Department, the Detroit Police Department, the Wayne State University Police Department, the Detroit Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the State of Michigan. Police.

Man convicted of murder-for-hire in Sterling Heights – Macomb Daily

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