FOX 2 - The person of interest in the execution-style murders of two people on Detroit's west side is now behind bars after turning himself in.
Hours after being named a person of interest in a double-murder, Orlando Whitfield -a suspect in a Ypsilanti murder turned himself into the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Department Tuesday evening.
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Attorney for Ypsilanti murder suspect befuddled why he is a person of interest in Detroit double murder
The person of interest in the execution-style murders of two people on Detroit's west side is now behind bars after turning himself in.
"He’s also shocked to hear that he’s a person of interest in any other criminal activity at all," said his attorney Erika Julien. "I have no reason to believe that he was in Detroit at any time. I don’t know where the allegations are coming from, I’d be shocked if he had anything to do with any of that."
Julien is Whitfield’s lawyer and says the sheriff's department had a warrant out for his arrest after he cut off his tether last week.
"He had been receiving some threats having to do with the case from outside places, that quite frankly caused him to panic," Julien said.
Whitfield is facing several felony charges including murder in that case stemming from a 2018 robbery and shooting in which 25-year-old Marissa Edmunds was killed.
Whitfield was in the county jail for more than two years before Washtenaw County Judge Carol Kunkhe allowed him to be released on tether in May of 2020.
Julien says it was because of the COVID-19 pandemic and his attorneys not getting crucial information from investigators to mount a defense.
"He was charged with six felonies and I was stunned and everybody I talked to they said why’d she let him out?" said Cindy Warren.
Cindy Warren, Marissa Edmunds' mother, wipes tears away talking about the suspect released on a tether he later cut off.
Warren, Marissa Edmund's mother, was stunned to learn the man accused of killing her daughter three years ago is now a person of interest in a double homicide.
"I mean, if he did it they could’ve been, they’d still be alive if he was still in jail," she said. "(That poor baby) doesn’t have parents. and their parents are going through the same thing we’re going through."
On Monday a 31-year-old man found bound gagged and executed, his 27-year-old girlfriend also shot and killed inside this house on the 18000 block of Northlawn on Detroit’s west side.
Their nine-month-old baby was unharmed but left alone for hours in the same house where his parents were murdered.
MORE COVERAGE:
- Person of interest ID'd in double murder where infant was left alone in house, turns self in
- Ypsilanti murder suspect named person of interest in Detroit double murder where infant was found
- Family frightened, confused after accused murderer gets GPS release from jail
Whitfield is considered a habitual offender and has a history of fleeing police and sexual assault. He was also
accused of making a shank while in jail but a jury found him not guilty.