GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A jury has found Adam Nolin guilty of killing his girlfriend.
Nolin was found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Tia Randall at her home on Sept. 27, 2018. After killing Randall, Nolin led police on a high-speed chase that ended in a shootout on US-131.
A Grand Rapids officer ended the situation by hitting Nolin with a cruiser after he got out of his pickup truck and started shooting at police.
Throughout the trial, Nolin’s defense attorney has admitted his client committed murder, but argued it wasn’t premeditated.
“I’m not going to tell you he didn’t (kill Randall), I would be insulting your intelligence,” said Charles Clapp, Nolin’s attorney. “He killed her, the evidence is clear. But why he killed her and his intent is the key to this case.”
Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Bonnie Prevette argued Nolin’s intent was clearly to kill Randall.
“All the evidence shows that was exactly the case, because really, what other intent do you have when you walk up that close to a person and put a firearm, a gun, to their head within 12 inches?” Prevette said.
Prevette said Nolin fired two shots, which shows he thought about killing her twice.
“He fired two shots, not just one where he was thinking quickly. He thought about it again,” she said. “That was no accident, he had time to think twice, and he pulled that trigger twice, at a human being — a human being that he supposedly loved.”
Clapp argued that prosecutors couldn’t prove what Nolin’s intentions were with the second shot fired.
“We don’t know that that second shot was aimed at her, it was a second shot,” he said. “I could argue that second shot — they never recovered the bullet. You don’t know when that bullet was fired … I think that second shot was probably fired but we don’t know if it was fired at Tia or whether he tried to commit suicide right then and missed.”
During Wednesday’s testimony, a friend of the couple testified Nolin was controlling. Prosecutors have also referenced a relationship between Randall and a coworker as part of what led up to her murder.
Clapp refuted those statements during closing arguments.
Nolin is facing up to life in prison.
