Lisa Roose-Church

Livingston Daily

A Genoa Township man convicted of assaulting a roommate who was offended when called “bro” has been sentenced to prison.

Jack Norman Rukes told the court he does not understand how the jury could convict him of assault to do great bodily harm less than murder because the victim’s testimony at trial “made no common sense.”

“There’s no way it could have made sense. Yet with all the circumstantial evidence, I was convicted, so here I stand,” the 57-year-old Rukes said.

“This incident has taught me a lot. … I’d like to say a valuable lesson was learned here, and that is to be careful on who you call 'bro,'” he said, turning toward the victim in court.

Judge Miriam Cavanaugh sentenced Rukes to 18 months to 15 years in the Michigan Department of Corrections. He was given credit for serving 245 days and ordered to pay $1,761 in restitution.

Following the estimated 30-minute hearing Thursday, the victim said Rukes should have received a higher sentence, especially considering his conviction for assault in Montana.

The 58-year-old victim testified at the four-day trial that he and friends from the mobile home park were sitting on the porch drinking alcohol in June 2014 when he walked into the kitchen where Rukes was fixing something to eat.

The victim said he “got attacked from behind, and the next thing I know, I’m being beaten.” He said Rukes knocked him unconscious at least twice and that Rukes struck him “every time” he tried to get up.

The victim said he eventually was able to stand and he grabbed a knife out of a kitchen block to protect himself. He said he suffered a broken eye socket, broken jaw, and his neck and ribs were bruised.

The victim said he was upset that Rukes continually called him “bro” despite repeatedly asking Rukes to stop. He testified that he served prison time for a drunken driving offense, and in prison the term “bro” was used to refer to “homosexual things,” which offended him.

Rukes argued it was self-defense, but Cavanaugh noted that the jury rejected that finding and convicted him.

Defense attorney David Regnier described the incident as a “fistfight” resulting from a “bad environment” where Rukes “lost his temper in what may or may not have started as self-defense.”

He asked for Cavanaugh to follow the state probation officer’s recommendation that his client receive a one-year county jail sentence, which he called “fair. Generous but fair.”

“At a certain point, it went too far. However, I think this was a fistfight,” Regnier said. “There were injuries gruesome in nature and gruesome visually, but as the (pre-sentence) report would indicate, they were treatable and certainly were not life threatening.”

Assistant Prosecutor Angela Del Vero disagreed, telling the court Rukes deserved a prison term. She said the probation officer’s recommendation is based on directives given a scoring system that the state uses based on “partial information and sentencing guidelines.”

She asked the judge to essentially read between the lines and see that the probation officer had provided a number of factors from Rukes’ past, including an assault conviction in Montana, as reasons his behavior in the Livingston County incident was “more egregious.”

Rukes was convicted of felony aggravated assault and sentenced to 20 years in prison for assaulting his wife in Missoula County, Missouri. He was acquitted of two misdemeanor assault charges. According to a court hearing, Rukes admitted holding his wife down and assaulting her.

“I want the court to understand what (the probation officer) is implying in (her) statements,” Del Vero said. “… The sentence recommended by MDOC absolutely, 100 percent guarantees (the victim) will never receive one dime of restitution — and that is perhaps the ultimate injustice to this recommendation. …

“To recommend a sentence because of protocol from some bureaucrat in a state agency that denies him the ability to collect restitution is, frankly, offensive to me,” she added.

Regnier called Del Vero’s statements unfair, noting that his client has successfully completed probation before and had been employed.

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Contact Livingston Daily justice reporter Lisa Roose-Church at 517-552-2846 or lrchurch@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @LisaRooseChurch.