Road-rage shooter sentenced to 27 to 50 years in prison

Lisa Roose-Church | (Livingston County, Mich.) Daily Press & Argus

HOWELL, Mich. — A Michigan man was sentenced to 27 to 50 years in prison Friday as punishment for killing a father of two who approached his pickup truck in what prosecutors described as a road-rage incident.

Martin Edward Zale, 69, of Marion Township, Mich., was convicted May 15 of second-degree murder and related firearms charges in the Sept. 2 fatal shooting of Derek Flemming, 43, of Oceola Township, Mich.

"I'm a broken woman with broken children," Amy Flemming said in court before Zale's sentence was handed down.

During his trial, Zale had maintained that he shot Derek Flemming in self-defense as the man confronted him about his aggressive driving at an intersection in Genoa Township, Mich., about 50 miles northwest of Detroit. He said then that he had intended to kill his victim, who stood at his driver's side window as the pickup was stopped at a red light, because Derek Flemming hit him in the face, threatened to harm him and reached into the truck's cab as if to carry out the threat.

Derek Flemming and his wife had been on their way to pick up their two children when Zale's speeding pickup nearly struck their Ford Escape, Amy Flemming said a few days after the incident. A GoFundMe account established a day after Derek Flemming died has raised about $23,000 in the past nine months.

Zale did not speak Friday on the advice of his lawyer, Marcus Wilcox.

Judge Miriam Cavanaugh of Livingston County Probate Court said she found no compelling reasons for leniency. State-recommended guidelines for the crime call for 15 to 25 years in prison.

"You were a shooting waiting to happen," she said. "If it hadn't been Mr. Flemming, it would have been someone else."

The prosecution had argued that Zale should have rolled up his window and driven away rather than firing his 9mm Ruger semi-automatic handgun. Both men had been involved in previous unrelated road-rage incidents that got the attention of area law-enforcement officers.

Zale's single shot struck Derek Flemming in the face.

Zale must spend at least 27 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. His minimum sentence for the murder charge is 25 years, but he also received a 2-year sentence for the firearms charge, which Cavanaugh ordered him to serve after the murder incarceration.

He will be 96 years old before he is eligible for parole. Zale's lawyer previously said he plans to appeal the verdict.

Elaine Flemming, Derek Flemming's mother, said Friday that Zale was evil.

"I called you a monster the day after it happened and my mind hasn't changed," she said.