JACKSON, MI - Kathy Newman knows her son Matthew McMillen was out there "doing wrong," but this was unwarranted.

Tracy Lawrence should have called the police.

After two years, she sees the jury's verdict as justice. "I'm glad he's finally guilty."

Jurors on Tuesday afternoon convicted Lawrence, 55, of two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of McMillen and his friend Hunter Lentz, both 18.

In doing so, the jury rejected the arguments of Lawrence's lawyers, who contended Lawrence acted in self-defense or lawfully prevented the escape of two fleeing felons on his property with ill intent.

He used a .22-caliber rifle to shoot and kill them June 8, 2016 on Town Road in Springport Township.

Jurors also found Lawrence guilty of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, which will add two years to his sentence.

Tuesday, Lawrence had no visible or audible reaction to the verdict. Observers, warned in advance about any outbursts, were quiet.

Lawrence faces up to life in prison when Jackson County Circuit Judge John McBain is to sentence him on Aug. 29.

Acknowledging the potential long penalty, McBain revoked Lawrence's bond. He went in chains to the county jail despite his lawyer George Lyons' argument that prior to Tuesday, Lawrence, who lacks any criminal record, lived a "spotless life."

"I think it's unfair, honestly," Lawrence's wife Ethel said as she left the courtroom. She has been married to Lawrence for 38 years.

Her sister Tammy Caudill walked with her. Taking Lawrence from his family is not going to bring back McMillen and Lentz, she said. "I am sorry for the loss, but it doesn't make any sense."

Lawrence has lived with it every day, Ethel Lawrence said. "He can't sleep."

He did not know they were "boys," Caudill said. "He didn't even know what they were."

Once a bullet goes, "you can't take it back," she said, and she embraced Ethel Lawrence on the sidewalk. A son-in-law and nephew stood nearby.

Efforts on Tuesday afternoon to speak to Lyons and Jared Hopkins, Lawrence's lawyers, were not successful.

County Prosecutor Jerry Jarzynka praised jurors for their diligence and attentiveness. "Ultimately, I think their decision was very conscientious."

It was consistent with the facts of the case, that Lawrence shot and killed two unarmed teenagers who were running off his property. McMillen was hit in the back.

Lentz had a wound to the back side of his head, said Jarzynka, who commended his trial team, Assistant Prosecutors Steven Idema and Katie Hawkins and Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. David Stamler.

The law limits the legal justifications for lethal force, and the evidence showed the teens were not breaking into Lawrence's house. They were yards from the back door, Jarzynka said, when he spotted them, near his truck, which was across a driveway from Lawrence's back porch, his stated firing position.

Jarzynka visited the scene of the crime, as jurors did last week, before he decided to charge Lawrence with second-degree murder, he said, and he was struck by the distances involved.

"It is quite a big expanse. It is quite a distance," Jarzynka said.

"That really flies in the face of self-defense when you see the distance and the space involved."

A person cannot use deadly force to shoot trespassers, Jarzynka said.

The defense contended the teens were doing far more than trespassing. They were wearing heavy clothes, including gloves. They brought with them what have been characterized as burglary tools. They were not there to sell Girl Scout cookies; they were criminals, Lyons said.

There were signs of breaking and entering on Lawrence's mobile home, sitting on his adjacent property, and a camper, evidence showed, but Lawrence did not know about this at the time he fired, the prosecution told jurors.

What jurors were not told is of the alleged crime spree, a series of break-ins, that preceded the teen's trip to Town Road, barred from the presentation by the Court of Appeals.

Lawrence said the teenagers, uninvited strangers, were coming at him on an early morning. He had spotted them as he went about his normal routine, making coffee and watching TV. He said they scared the hell out of him.

"It wasn't a good situation for any of us," said Lentz's aunt, Wendy Ridley.

Lentz and McMillen should not have been there, and Lawrence should not have acted as he did with the firearm, she said.

She loves Lentz, she said. "I still love him." And she wishes she could smack him in the head for the choices he made.

He was too young to understand the consequences, she said.

"Neither of them deserved to die like that," she said.

Trouble had found Lentz again after a better period, she said.

He liked doing work, outdoor labor like irrigation, roofing, landscaping, and was proud of his labors, his relatives and girlfriend Alyssa Snyder said.

Foolish decisions or not, Lentz had a good heart, another relative said as a group stood outside the courthouse. He enjoyed fishing and being outside.

He had given his girlfriend a ring, and taken hard the death of his grandfather, his anchor, about a year before he died.

Why was he on Town Road that morning in 2016? "We don't know," Ridley said.

"I'd love to be able to ask him."

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