Jeffrey Willis, Michigan inmate 436898, born 1970, incarceration intake June 2018 at age 48, sentenced to life.
Spent 5 years in jail between arrest and sentencing.
Jeffrey Willis has been sentenced to life in prison for abducting and killing convenience store clerk Jessica Heeringa in 2013.
In a 13-minute statement, Willis addressed the court: he maintained his innocence and made claims that police botched the investigation and manipulated the evidence against him. He maintained that he was trying to help the teen MJN in April 2016, when he was arrested after trying to abduct her.
“Due to a lack of funding, a careless disregard for truth, the desire to reach a rash and attentive conclusion to an unproven crime, or just plain falsifying evidence, not only has this promise [of justice] been murdered, but also left to rot at the feet of lady justice,” said Willis reading his statement.
Willis is still awaiting trial on that abduction, but the Muskegon County Prosecutor says he has to speak with people, including victims, about whether to continue to pursue or drop these pending charges.
After his arrest in 2016, investigators tied a gun found in Willis’ van to the bullets used to kill Rebekah Bletsch while she was jogging in June 2014. They also found other evidence that tied Willis to Heeringa’s disappearance in April 2013.
The DA addressed the court and says he is very proud of the police work done in Muskegon County, thanked the Bletsch family for their help and support, then said he expects to sleep better knowing that Jeffrey Willis is behind bars for life.
“[Willis] just doesn’t see his culpability in all of this apparently,” said the DA after sentencing.
“[Willis] would have continued to haunt and stalk women who were isolated or in isolated areas, and his killing would have continued; I have no doubt in my mind of that. The fact that this man will never see the light of day again, I’m pretty happy with that.”
Despite Willis calling his trial rigged, his defense attorney, the Muskegon County Chief Public Defender told local media this trial was “remarkably fair.”
“This was the man who was vilified from the very press conference before he even went to the preliminary examination,” said the lawyer.
“So under those circumstances and given the complications, the County of Muskegon put on a terrific defense for this man. And we’re very proud of the effort we made for him.”
Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before finding Willis guilty of first-degree murder and kidnapping in the April 2013 kidnapping and death of Heeringa, a clerk at the former Exxon Mobil gas station in Norton Shores. Her body has not been found.
Last reviewed February 2023
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