OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. (March 19, 2014) — An Ottawa County Jail inmate took the witness stand on Wednesday to testify against Ryan Wyngarden.
Daryl Cain told the jury that Wyngarden admitted to him, while the two were talking inside the jail, that he killed his sister and brother-in-law, Gail and Rick Brink, at their Ottawa County home back in 1987.
Cain said Wyngarden wrote on the palm of his hand the words, ‘I did kill them.’
“Holding it (Wyngarden’s hand) up to the window, he turned around and he said, ‘boom, boom, boom, boom,’ just like that,” Cain said. “He went on telling me how he staged the crime scene to make it look like their was a hit…how he left two I.D.’s out on the desk,” Cain said. “(He) told me that he left the phone book open to the tow yard to make it look that a tow truck or something came.”
During Cain’s testimony, the defense discredited his statements by saying he had a motive for sitting on the witness stand.
“Do you also recall telling the detectives, on page 16, ‘if I can get a PR bond I would testify, because I sure don’t want to be jail over this,” Wyngarden’s attorney said. “So, you wanted to get out, isn’t that what you were pitching to them that time?”
While Cain admitted he wanted to be placed on bond to attend his father’s funeral, his request was denied. But, according to Cain, that’s not the only reason he testified.
“I had an uncle that was murdered,” Cain said. “The killer’s still walking the streets.
Wyngarden’s stepson, Nathan Maracchini, also took the witness stand. He said his stepfather came to his house drunk after the case reopened.
“He came down crying and hugging on me,” Maracchini said. “He was just hugging on me then he started calling the detective’s names.”
Maracchini said during that encounter, Wyngarden told him he had a sexual relationship with Gail when they were teenagers.
“He told me that they were, I don’t know how to put it, they were touching and feeling each other,” Marachhini said.
He went on to say his stepdad told him he wished the detectives would find the people responsible for the murders.
Wyngarden was arrested in 2013 and charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder in the Brinks’ deaths after detectives said his wife, Pam Wyngarden, came forward saying he showed her their bodies after shooting them. Since that time, Maracchini, while fighting back tears, said his family has been torn apart.
“We’re not family anymore…there’s no family,” Maracchini. “I can’t even go down to my mom’s house…my brothers and sister, they want to start fighting with me because I’m against my dad.”
He said he hasn’t spoken with his stepfather since the time of his arrest.
“I’m very angry,” he said.
The prosecution finished calling witnesses on Wednesday. The trial is expected to continue at 9 a.m. on Thursday where the defense will get a chance to call their witnesses.
