By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — Attorneys for Theodore Wafer, found guilty in the killing of a teenage girl on his front porch, are appealing his murder conviction.
Wafer shot 19-year-old Renisha McBride of Detroit in the face through a locked screen door on his front porch last November.
He said he was in fear for his life when heard the loud knocking on his door about 4:30 a.m. Nov. 2 because he thought it was an intruder.
The family of McBride argued that she was knocking on the door for help after crashing her vehicle about four hours earlier a mile from Wafer’s house.
The jury didn’t buy Wafer’s self-defense explanation for killing McBride.
Wafer was found guilty, after a six-week trial. He was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and felony firearm last month and sentenced to 15 to 30 years, 7 to 15 years and 2 years in jail, respectively.
He was sentenced to between 17 to 30 years in prison for all three crimes.
Wafer is serving time at the Michigan Department of Corrections Alger Correctional Facility in Muinising.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)