Michael Madison (born October 15, 1977) is an American convicted

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

and

sex offender A sex offender (sexual offender, sex abuser, or sexual abuser) is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crim ...

from

East Cleveland, Ohio East Cleveland is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and is the first suburb encountered when travelling east from Cleveland. The population was 13,792 at the 2020 census. East Cleveland is bounded by the city of Cleveland to its nor ...

who is known to have committed the murders of at least three women over a nine-month period in 2012 and 2013. He was arrested and charged with the crimes in 2013 and was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

in 2016. Madison is currently being held on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ( ...

Early life

Madison was born on October 15, 1977, to Diane Madison and John Baldwin, the product of an accidental pregnancy. However, Baldwin has denied that he was the father and had no contact with Madison. Madison had a severely abusive mother. His mother's boyfriends also abused him. He would later admit that he had mixed feelings over his mother's death.

Arrest

On July 19, 2013, police responded to reports of a foul odor, investigated a garage leased to Madison, and discovered a decomposing body lying inside. Two more bodies were found the following day – one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house. The bodies of the three women were found to apart and were each wrapped in plastic bags. After obtaining a

search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to confiscate any evidence they find. In most countr ...

, police entered Madison's apartment and found "further evidence of decomposition". After a brief standoff with police at his mother's house, Madison was taken into custody without incident. The victims were identified as: *Shetisha Sheeley, 28, who had been missing since September 2012. *Angela Deskins, 38, a resident of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

who was reported missing in June 2013. *Shirellda Helen Terry, 18, was last seen July 10, 2013, leaving a Cleveland Elementary School where she had a summer job. On July 22, 2013, Madison was charged with three counts of

aggravated murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the cr ...

. His bail was set at six million dollars, and he also waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

Trial and conviction

On October 31, 2013, Madison's attorney David Grant entered a not guilty plea to an updated indictment that included sexually motivated aggravated murder charges; prosecutors had announced that they were now seeking the death penalty, a move his attorney had tried to prevent but had expected. The 14-count updated indictment includes two counts each of aggravated murder for each victim, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of gross abuse of a corpse, one count of rape, and one count of weapons possession by an ex-convict. He had originally been registered as a sex offender in 2002 after serving four years for an attempted rape conviction, having had previous drug convictions in 2000 and 2001. Madison's trial began on April 4, 2016. On May 5, 2016, Madison was found guilty in the murders of Shirellda Terry, Shetisha Sheeley and Angela Deskins. The jury spent less than one day deliberating before returning a guilty verdict on all 13 counts. Madison told the court he planned to appeal to the

Ohio Supreme Court The Ohio Supreme Court, Officially known as The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a ...

. On May 20, 2016, the jury recommended that Madison should be sentenced to death. On June 2, 2016, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Nancy R. McDonnell sentenced Madison to death. During the sentencing, Madison was seen smirking. The smirking caused Van Terry, the father of the victim, Shirellda Terry, to lunge at Madison in anger over his daughter's murder. Terry was released without charges. The Ohio Supreme Court voted unanimously to uphold the death sentence for Madison on July 21, 2020.

Mother's killing

Three years after his conviction, Madison's mother, Diane Madison, was killed at her home on June 22, 2019. She died from multiple stab wounds. Three of her grandchildren were also injured in the attack. Her grandson, 18-year old Jalen Plummer was charged with his grandmother's murder and three counts of attempted murder. He pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced in June 2021 to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

In Jail

It was said that, in jail, Madison was severely beat up by 2 men and 3 women who after learning what he did, planned to make his life "hell". Madison would have to be hospitalized for around 2 months. Upon release, another man slapped him and smashed his head on a desk, forcing the attacker to transfer to a different jail.

References