Thursday, December 22, 2011

Green Oak Township, MI: Court Docket: Additional charges for murder suspects

Two men charged with murder for beating, strangling and burning a man's body in Green Oak Township are facing additional charges.

Brian Stafford and George Robert Tanner are now facing an added charge of mutilating the body of Christopher London Townsend. Friends say Townsend was killed because he kissed Tanner's girlfriend.

Stafford also faces three additional counts of resisting police for fighting with Brighton police at their department during an interview with officers, according to court records.

Although no arraignment date had been set as of Wednesday, the men return to court Jan. 9 for an exam conference.

Police allege Tanner, of Detroit, and Stafford, of Green Oak Township, both 27, picked up Townsend from his home in the Kensington Place manufactured home community south of Interstate 96 and east of Kent Lake Road in Oakland County on Oct. 16 and drove him to a wooded area in the 10000 block of Silver Lake Road in Green Oak Township.

While en route, the two defendants allegedly struck Townsend with a "heavy wrench" on the head multiple times and strangled him with the shoulder harness of a seat belt before burning his body in the woods, police said.

Authorities have not released a motive, but friends of Townsend said Tanner "went nuts" after learning Townsend had "kissed Tanner's girlfriend."

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