close
close

Pleaded guilty to 1997 murder near Blissfield; man's head and hands were severed

ADRIAN – An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to his role in the murder of a man whose headless, handless body was found in a Blissfield Township field in 1997.

Although the victim's cause of death has been determined, he remains known only as “John Doe.” Michael Sepulveda, 50, of Toledo was not asked the man's name in Lenawee County District Court on Wednesday, nor did he volunteer that information.

In his plea to second-degree murder, Sepulveda said his brother, Richardo Sepulveda, 53, of Cincinnati, owed someone money and instead of giving it to the victim, they murdered him. Under questions from his attorney, Jim Daly of Adrian, and Michigan Assistant Attorney General Bonita Hoffman, he said they first hit the victim in the head with a rubber mallet. He was still alive when they drove him to Lenawee County, where they stabbed him three times in the stomach. They then cut off his head and hands and doused him with a chemical, possibly drain cleaner or bleach, to remove fingerprints, then left the body in a shallow hole in the cornfield next to Corey Highway. The murder was committed between Jan. 1 and the date the body was found by a farmer, Nov. 19, 1997.

According to court documents, a drug debt owed by Richardo Sepulveda may have been a motive for the murder.

Part of the agreement with Michael Sepulveda is that he testify truthfully against his brother and continue to cooperate with investigators from the Michigan State Police and the Attorney General's Office. The agreement specifies a prison sentence of 10 to 30 years. Hoffman explained to Judge Michael R. Olsaver that if Michael Sepulveda had been convicted by a jury of second-degree murder, the minimum sentence would have been between 22.5 and 37.5 years and the maximum sentence would have been up to life in prison.

The original charges and additional charges against Michael Sepulveda as a habitual offender will be dismissed at sentencing, which Olsaver has scheduled for October 10.

The Sepulvedas were originally charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, assault with intent to commit assault, assault with intent to commit tampering, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence. The murder charge carries a maximum sentence of up to life in prison without parole. The other charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

These charges against Richardo Sepulveda remain.

The Sepulvedas have been in custody since their arrest in January 2023. Olsaver revoked Michael Sepulveda's bail and transferred him to the custody of the Lenawee County Sheriff's Office after accepting his guilty plea.

Richardo Sepulveda's attorney, William Amadeo of Lansing, also appeared in court Wednesday to set trial dates. He said he would speak with his client, who is being held on $600,000 bail in the Washtenaw County Jail, about Wednesday's trial. He told Olsaver that Michael Sepulveda's confession changes his trial strategy.

Subscribe now: Here you will find the latest local developments, current news and information on school and university sports.

Olsaver scheduled the trial to begin on February 11. Amadeo and Hoffman estimated that it would last up to five days.

After the partially decomposed body was found, police searched the field and the surrounding area but could not find any body parts.

Sepulveda said Wednesday that he and his brother dumped the victim's head and hands in Toledo's Tenmile Creek, off a bridge near a chemical plant on Stickney Avenue. They dumped the victim's clothes in a trash can behind a Toledo bar.

The victim is believed to be a 32-year-old Hispanic man from the Corpus Christi, Texas, area. Investigators used tips from witnesses and forensic experts to determine the victim was a light-skinned, 5'8″, 150-pound white or Hispanic man and may have been named Roberto. His DNA profile has been uploaded to a national database of missing and unidentified persons, and police are using genealogy websites that use DNA to create family trees to identify him.

The investigation into the murder has been ongoing since 2016, Detective Sgt. Larry Rothman of the Michigan State Police First District Cold Case Unit said after the Sepulvedas were arrested. The COVID-19 pandemic and other murders took time away from the case, but investigators picked it up again when the Cold Case Unit took it over and eventually submitted it to the Attorney General's Office for charges to be filed.

– Contact reporter David Panian at [email protected] or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

You may also like...