E.L. police arrest Mississippi fugitive

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East Lansing police arrested a man Saturday morning for urinating in public, only to discover he is a fugitive from Mississippi convicted of shooting an Iraq war veteran several times during a robbery.

Leo Wales III, 20, was arrested near Quality Dairy, 1109 E. Grand River Ave., by an East Lansing police officer at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

Police found that Wales was convicted of armed robbery and aggravated assault with a gun for a March 2009 incident in Jackson, Miss., where he robbed and shot Iraq war veteran Michael Robertson several times. He was sentenced to 80 years
in prison.

East Lansing police Capt. Kim Johnson said Wales resisted arrest and the officer had to use a Taser to subdue him. Wales gave officers a false name, but fingerprints taken revealed
his identity.

East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said Wales told police he was staying with friends on the 300 block of Gunson Street. Police didn’t know how long Wales had been in East Lansing.

Wales jumped bail the day before his trial started, but the trial continued without him, said Robert Smith, the district attorney of Mississippi’s Hinds County, where Wales was prosecuted.

“His court date was scheduled, and his family and his lawyers said that they had spoken with him and that he was going to show up for trial,” Smith said. “But he never did.”

Wales’ attorney, Randy Harris, said Wales spent time in Detroit, but was living with family in Mississippi at the time of his arrest in March 2009. Harris said he objected to the trial proceeding in Wales’ absence.

Harris and Smith said witnesses testified that Wales and an accomplice, Neil Jackson, went up to Robertson’s parked car, demanded money and shot Robertson several times before fleeing. Witnesses testified the duo made off with $600,
Harris said.

Jackson is being held in a Hines County detention facility awaiting trial on the same charges Wales faced. Smith said Jackson’s trial could be scheduled as soon as March.

Wales will remain in Ingham County Jail until the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office files a fugitive warrant, which will begin the formal process of extraditing Wales back to Mississippi. There, he will immediately be sent to prison, Smith said.

Robertson, a U.S. Marine Corps and National Guard member, had recently returned from Iraq when he was attacked. He said he was glad to hear Wales had been apprehended, but still awaits Wales’ return to Mississippi.

“It brings some closure,” Robertson said. “It’s better than knowing he is still out there loose, and could possibly hurt someone else. I’m here and I’m alive and I’m thankful to just be alive.”

Harris said he is appealing Wales’ conviction and waiting to hear whether the Mississippi Supreme Court will take the case.

“It’s nearly impossible to try a case without your client there,” he said. “It was done in this case, even though I vehemently objected to it. The court felt like it was going by the statute and the law and that it was appropriate, but I disagree with the court.”

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