GUILTY MI - Fred Johnson, 53, Scott & Melissa Berels, both 27, die in crime spree, Feb 2006

[GlitchWizard]

Bachynski seemed to be pushing the criminal case to trial at the circuit court as her attorneys argued she was forced to participate in the crime spree and feared for her life while with Selepak.

This gets me today. Yesterday, I went to Union Correctional Institution (Death Row visitation) and I saw this KID in there - couldn't have been a day over 18. I asked my friend what he was there for and he said that this kid's girlfriend had told him of horrendous parental abuse she had sustained for years and got him talked into helping her kill her parents. She actually injected stuff into her parents veins to kill them while he helped her.

She's walking around free because he "made her do it." She said. He's on Death Row.

It makes me feel very upset to hear the "he made me do it" defense. Yes, I understand it's hard to say no to someone who is beating you up and threatening your children - but in cases where that is clearly NOT the case - it makes me sick.

 

[cathieq]

MOUNT CLEMENS -- Accused murderer Samantha Bachynski is being treated for an undisclosed medical condition while incarcerated in the Macomb County Jail...Hackel would not confirm reports that Bachynski cut herself with a razor blade. WXYZ Channel 7 reported Thursday that Bachynski was discovered about 4 a.m. by guards, suffering from self-inflicted wounds caused by a razor blade.

"She's been very upset," Black said. "She feels trapped. She feels like the whole world thinks she's guilty of a crime she didn't commit."
http://tinyurl.com/jw7cj


Her actions are about 3 lives too late.

 

[cathieq]

MOUNT CLEMENS - An ex-convict accused of strangling a pregnant woman, suffocating her husband and killing another man after being wrongly released from prison pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of first-degree murder...
...His lawyer said Patrick Selepak, 27, made the pleas to spare the victims' families the trauma of a trial and to protect co-defendant Samantha Bachynski...
http://tinyurl.com/px2rf
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060715/NEWS01/607150314/1001/news

 

[georgiagirl]

When a 20-year-old Michigan woman stands trial for murder next week, she won't deny that she participated in the gruesome torture and murders of a pregnant woman and her husband in their New Baltimore home.

Instead, lawyers for Samantha Bachynski will attempt to portray their client as a naïve and unwitting teen who helped her ex-con boyfriend kill Scott and Melissa Berels only because she feared for her own life.

But Macomb County prosecutors claim Bachynski proved herself a willing participant in the murders by tightening a belt around Melissa Berels' neck and injecting a syringe filled with bleach into the arm of Berel's 27-year-old husband.

"She had plenty of opportunities to leave," Macomb County prosecuting attorney William Cataldo said. "Did she start it? No. But she clearly participated."

Patrick Selepak, the man who started it, has pleaded guilty to murder and weapons charges for his role in the Feb. 15, 2006, home invasion and murders. He is currently serving a life sentence.

www.courttv.com/news/2006/0922/bachynski_ctv.html

 

[OkieGranny]

From April 2006:

https://www.michigandaily.com/content/gory-details-killing-spree-come-light

Dwyre said Bachynski told him that Selepak shot Johnson, 53, twice when he tried to escape from his Vienna Township home after learning that the couple, whom he had allowed to stay with him, were wanted in the Berelses' deaths...

Bachynski also told him... she helped choke Melissa Berels and injected Scott Berels with bleach up to a dozen times in several unsuccessful attempts to kill him. He finally died after she tugged on a belt wrapped around his neck as Selepak used his hands to choke him.

From April 2007:

http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2007/05/bachynski_gets_23_to_75_years.html

A Genesee County judge sentenced a weeping Samantha J. Bachynski to 23 to 75 years in prison today for the slaying of a Vienna Township man who befriended her and co-defendant Patrick A. Selepak...

Bachynski, 20, of Imlay City, pleaded no contest in April to second-degree murder and two other felony counts in the Feb. 21, 2006 slaying of Johnson, 52, of Vienna Township... She already is serving life without parole in the slayings of a Macomb County couple who were killed six days before Johnson.

Selepak, 28, of New Haven, pleaded guilty to all three slayings and is serving life without parole.