MUSKEGON, MI – Leon Means has confessed to killing four women in Muskegon Heights -- two this week and two in 1989 -- according to a police detective's sworn statement.

An arrest warrant was signed Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 15, charging the 61-year-old Means with four counts of open murder as a fourth-time or subsequent habitual offender. Muskegon County 60th District Judge Raymond J. Kostrzewa signed the warrant and denied bond.

Muskegon Heights Police Detective Steve White said under oath in front of Kostrzewa that Means in a police interview Wednesday admitted killing:

Judy Bushman, 62. She was found dead around 7 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, in her home in the 2600 block of Wood Street.

Means told detectives that, while at Bushman's home – where he had previously lived, prosecutors have said -- "he and Miss Bushman exchanged words, and after the argument, he admitted that he killed her," White said.

Anna Lawson, 63. She was found around 12:45 a.m. Tuesday in her home in the 200 block of East Sherman Boulevard.

"He admitted he had been allowed in to the residence by Anna Lawson, and while he was there with Miss Lawson there was a confrontation between he and Anna Lawson, and during the confrontation he stabbed her," causing her death, White said.

Detectives also asked Means about the June 1989 slayings of Means' estranged wife and her mother, White said. White said Means admitted killing:

Cynthia Lou Herrera Means, 30, his estranged wife.

Linda Lou Herrera, 48, his mother-in-law.

Both women were found dead June 15, 1989, in their home in the 2800 block of Jefferson Street.

"He provided detailed statements as to what occurred in that incident," White said.

Police arrested Means early Wednesday in the city of Muskegon, Muskegon County Prosecutor D.J. Hilson said earlier. Police also have recovered a 2006 Malibu missing from one of the women's homes, he said.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections website, Means served many years in state prison and was discharged from Corrections Department control on July 13, 2012.

Means, in 1989, was charged with the multiple-stabbing deaths of his estranged wife and her mother while he was a prison escapee. According to news accounts, those charges were dropped in hopes of building a stronger case after a jury convicted Means of other felonies that kept him in prison for decades. The murder case was never reissued.

Means' MDOC page shows Muskegon County convictions for conspiracy to bring contraband into prison in 1996, prison escape in 1989 – a conviction that netted a sentence of 15 to 50 years – as well as assault with a dangerous weapon and carrying a concealed weapon in 1986, breaking and entering a building with intent in 1984 and unarmed robbery in 1971.

John S. Hausman covers courts, prisons, the environment and local government for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at jhausman@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter.