James Dewey Porter IV
Mdoc #171785
Dob Nov 30, 1965
Bellamy creek corr fac
Yale, MI
1. James D Porter IV grew up in Yale, Michigan.
2. The majority of his life, he was known as a good kid.
3. Until he wasn’t. Around the age of 13, James moods began to change and he was not changing for the better good of society. {which makes total sense beause body changes approximately every 7 years}
4. James started becoming:
-moody
-irritable
-easily distracted
-disliked authority figures
-disobeyed
-defensive
-easily peer pressured
-aggressive
-selfish
5. The downside of all of this was that James was a smart kid, he was very sophisticated for his ripe age of 13.
6. With such a change, we have to wonder if his folks though he was going through puberty ….or maybe doing drugs, hanging with the wrong crowd??? I wonder what was said behind closed doors.
7. At first he started with small things and he escalated rather quickly.
8. He was caught shop lifting and lying.
9. By age 15 he was already past flirting with trouble. The high school principal stated that he was a known scrapper and other students would say he was rowdy and liked to flirt.
10. On the flip side, he owned a successful enough business with the neighbor kid down the road, so I can see how his parents would just think this was all a phase.
11. Jimmy and Eric were friends but they were a few years apart in age.
12. The two of them frequently hunted together and turned their love of hunting into a muskrat pelt business.
13. Muskrat pelt is often used for….
14. The two of them would have a falling out eventually over the fact that Eric accused James of stealing some of the muskrat pelts from their families basement.
15. There had been more than 1 break in into Eric’s families home…so it was a bit suspicious.
16. Side note: before Jimmy screwed up, they were selling their pelts to a place in Sandusky…and I’m thinking Ohio because I don’t think there’s a Sandusky Michigan.
17. On the morning of April 7, 1982 Mr. Giuliani leaves for his GM job in Warren, Michigan just like every day for 27 years at 4:30 am.
18. He actually works at the technical center plant there and had moved his family from the Warren area to Yale to get away from crime.
19. It was a busy morning for the Giuliani family, as Mrs G was making breakfast and getting their family of four up and going. She and her daughter intended to go bowling.
20. Mrs. G’s friend Lydia called around 7:40 to see if her and her daughter could join them in their bowling outing and Mrs. G happily agreed to take them along.
21. That early Wednesday morning, Jimmy Porter grabbed his gun and his bike. He placed his gun along the handlebars and started riding down the road.
22. 40 minutes later, Miss Lydia and her daughter went to pick up Mrs. G (Bette) and her 13 year old daughter Cynthia didn’t come out to the car at all.
23. Like any normal parent, Miss Lydia sent her daughter to the door to get them, however her daughter returned and stated that nobody was home.
24. Of course Miss Lydia was confused because she literally just spoke to Bette about picking them up.
25. The two of them trotted through the garage to the door that everyone went to and entered the home.
26. Instead of carpooling to the bowling alley with her friends, Lydia found herself looking at a horrific crime scene pooled in blood.
27. Lydia picked up the phone and called the sheriff right away then she hung up and called her husband.
28. I don’t know where those beautiful people are today, if they are still around or not but I certainly hope they were able to get around the horror of the scene.
29. Local Sheriff and also a friend went to the GM plant to deliver the awful news that all five of his family member would found dead.
30. Interviews were conducted immediately as the scene was being processed.
31. A gun had been found by Eric’s body so there was a bit of confusion at first.
32. However, they found a number of shells that didn’t coincide with Eric’s gun, so it appeared it was brought out as defense.
33. Neighbors witnessed Jimmy riding his bicycle toward the Giuliani family home that morning.
34. Jimmy’s brother gave an appropriate time line of the morning
35. After Jimmy arrived back home that morning, he took Mrs. Giuliani checkbook that he had lifted off her dead body and went to the bank to cash a check for a grand.
36. Jimmy's friend was with him at the time and would testify to it.
37. How the massacre went down precisely is still somewhat unknown.
38. What we do know is that Mrs Bette G age 50, and her children Eric (19), Kathleen (17), cynthia (13) and Dean 9 were all found with a single bullet to their head.
39. FIVE shots…five shells….five shots with a rifle at close range.
40. All in all there were 14 shots fired from Jimmy’s .22 rifle
41. 11 of those times were bodily hits
42. 5 of those times were head shots
43. 5 shots to people that he KNEW pretty well.
44. He then grabbed the checkbook, hopped back onto his bike carefully placing the gun along the handle bars again and rode his sorry ass home.
45. Now retired Deputy Raymond James Gleason had the privilege of throwing the cuffs on Jimmy that same day around 6 pm.
46. Quoted in the Times (written by John F Brown) Deputy Gleason, “When I walked up to him on the street in downtown Yale, Porter looked right at me and said, ‘whats this all about?’ he was as cold as the snow on the ground.”
47. The deputy took him into the police department and held him until detectives arrived.
48. Detectives: Bruce Lindke, William Herpel, Robert Quain and Richard Russell questioned their suspect in the library.
49. That’s right, in Yale the city hall is an all-in-one fun house including:
-firehouse
-police department
-ambulance offices
-city offices
-and the town’s local library!
50. When Mr. G learned that Jimmy was suspect and/or arrested he stated that he did not agree. Quote, “He’s a thief but I don’t think he’d kill my family.”
51. The crazy thing is for how young Jimmy is, he says nothing. He still has not said shit all about it.
52. At the time, sources close to Jimmy told the papers that Jimmy said he does not remember anything from that morning.
53. He convenientlly told the same source that he’s been plagued with blackouts recently. He even came to one time with a 22 rifle in his hand. ( a different time…yeah)
54. Jimmy is put into isolation in an adult detention center.
55. Madison Heights State Police Crime Laboratory proved that the bolistics from the shells found at the scene and the 22 recovered from the Porters home were a match.
56. The gun that was found next to Eric, causing the initial confusion or possible thought that it was a family inihalation, was Eric’s gun…it had NOT been fired and he apparently brought it out as self defense.
57. Jimmy Porter is now being charged with the murder of the family.
58. April 12, the family of five were laid to rest, all on the same day, all at the same time.
59. On Friday, May 6 a closed probable cause hearing was held including the testimonies of police officers and four witnesses.
60. The proceeding was short and to the point and Jimmy’s parents were not present.
61. Defense attorney Dennis Smith requested a venue change due to the publicity of the case.
62. DA Dennis Smith also asked that some of the videotape and photo’s of the scene be removed as to not be more upsetting than they already were.
63. Judge Robert Spillard ruled this day that there is plenty of evidence to move the case forward, charging Jimmy with the murder of the five family members.
64. Soon after, on July 12, 1982 Judge Robert R Spillard relased in a written statement, “It is my conclusion that the interest of the child and the public would be best served by granting a waiver to adult criminal court where a jury of 12 citizens may or may not find him guilty of the alleged offenses.
Ending with, “This court concludes from the evidence that if James is amneable to treatment at all it can not be accomplished within the time he attained his 19th birthday. The court find that there is substantial evidence that this juvenile is not amnenable to treatmeent in the juvenille system.”
65. In normal words…you are being charged as an adult because you can’t be fixed by age 19.
66. Jimmy Porter was then transferred from a juvenille facility to St Clair County Jail.
67. Both Prosecutor Robert H Cleland and DA Dennis Smith requested psych evaluations, which would occur with more than one psychologist.
68. Jimmy the 4th pled innocent to all five counts of pre meditated murder.
69. Prosecutor Cleland asked that some legal words be amended to read 5 counts 1st degree pre meditated murder or felony murder (due to the evidence that murders happened during a break in)
**Trial starts in August of 1982**
70. During trial both fathers had to take the stand, and I believe it was the same day. Brutal.
71. Little Jimmy iv did not make eye contact with either of his elders, only glancing at them once.
72. Jimmy’s big brother Kent took the stand and gave the jurors a timeline of the early morning hours of that awful day. Saying that Jimmy did in fact leave their house and come back a while later.
73. Of course, the friend Jimmy was with when trying to cash checks from Mrs. G bank account testitfied.
74. The neighbors, police and others testified also, giving more proof of timelines and events.
74a. Jimmy’s lawyer planned to use mental health disorder as his action plan. That it was not premeditated murder.
75. The jury came back with their decision after about a day and half of deliberations. 5 men and 7 woman found Jimmy the 4th guilty.
76. He was sentenced to life in prison on March 14, 1983 and remains there until this very day.
77. Jimmy obviously did not take the stand in his defense, that would be stupid.
78. He never really talked publicaly about the situation either. News camera’s only catching him saying something once, after trial or I think sentencing when he said, “Stay away from me. I have nothing to say.”
77. In 2016 Jimmy filed a motion of rehabilitation. I don’t know if that’s what it’s called …but that’s that jist.
78. The motion stated the court should consider the folllowing:
-his home life at the time
-depressive symptoms at the time
-he’s been a good boy in prison with no tickets in the last 16 years
-kept his jail job as a unit painter for 10 ½ years
79. It stated “Mr Porter is not the rare or uncommon irreparable corrupt youth for whom a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole is appropriate. Rather, Mr Porter seeks to establish not only that he has the capacity for rehabilitation but he has prove his rehabilitation over the past 33 years.” That’s what the motion read.
80. Prosecution added back up protection by stating that Jimmy was diagnosed with some sort of adolescent schizo personality while he was in prison.
81. The motion did not fly. At earlier points while in prison he was busted with
-sexual misconduct
-violent assult w/serious injury to victime with plants to escape
Those probably didn’t help his cause of rehabilitation much.
82. Upon the change of Michigan Juvenile Laws in 2021, Jimmy the 4th was brought back in front of a judge.
83. His sentence would be changed to
-five 1st degree murders
-five weapon’s felony firearms
