GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A Kent County jury has found Matthew Brunn guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Casey Wybenga.
Wybenga, 81, was found dead at the America’s Best Inn and Suites on Three Mile Road in Walker last December.
Police say Brunn confessed to the murder to them, saying that he had choked Wybenga. Walker Police Detective Daniel Rapp testified that Brunn said he smoked crack in the hotel room’s bathroom and later he and Wybenga “fooled around” naked.
Brunn told the detective that while giving Wybenga a neck massage, he got mad and choked him.
Rapp testified that “(Brunn) became angry or mad because he felt Mr. Wybenga had been helping him, kind of enabling him, to cut (his parole) tether off.”
Wybenga’s niece, Roesmarie Gallapsy, told FOX 17 in January that her uncle was afraid of Brunn and had lent money to him several times in the past.
After the murder, fled to Detroit, was arrested and brought back to West Michigan.
