By Staff
ST. JOSEPH - The Michigan Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed the conviction of Coleman Tavon Edwards for assault with intent to murder Michigan State Police Trooper Timothy Slais back in 2003.
The trooper was helping to quell a disturbance during the 2003 riots in Benton Harbor when he attempted to remove Edwards from the rear seat of a parked vehicle.
Edwards resisted and shot Trooper Slais at very close range, wounding him in his left arm and torso.
Edwards was also convicted of resisting and obstructing a police officer causing serious injury and possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, but he did not challenge those convictions on appeal, according to the Berrien County Prosecutor's Office.
Trial Court sentenced him to concurrent terms of 216 to 540 months in prison for the assault conviction, 86 to 180 months for the resisting and obstructing conviction and to a two-year consecutive sentence for the felony-firearm conviction.
In affirming Edwards' conviction, the Michigan Court of Appeals rejected his claim that the evidence was insufficient to establish his intent to kill Trooper Slais.
The court found the location of the trooper's wounds and deliberate efforts required by Edwards to cause those wounds supported the jury's conclusion that Edwards intended to kill the trooper when he fired his gun.