Jerome Kowalski will be sentenced on two counts of second-degree murder after a judge from Shiawassee County ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant first-degree convictions July 20.
Kowalski pled no contest to two counts of open murder in October 2025, just days before the start of his second trial. A no contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt, but is treated as such for sentencing.
Mark Gatesman, defense attorney, said his client entered the plea because he didn’t want to risk additional prison time. His team is hoping for a sentence of time served, he told The Daily — given his client spent more than 13 years in prison before his release on bond in 2022…