WWII veteran's beating case expected to go to jury

Valerie Olander / The Detroit News

Howell -- Closing arguments were wrapping up late this afternoon for two men accused of robbing and brutally beating a World War II veteran in his Genoa Township home last year.

A Livingston Circuit Court jury is expected to begin deliberations Thursday morning to consider separate verdicts for Noah Lovell III, 33, of Plainwell, and Harry T. Riley, 37, of Ohio. Each is charged with armed robbery, imprisonment, torture and home invasion.

John Pickett, 84, was hospitalized for two months after being kicked and punched by a man who had posed as an electrical worker. Pickett identified Riley as the man who taped his wrists and ankles and threatened him with a knife while demanding money.

A second man was heard ransacking the home.

Assistant Prosecutor Dan Rose said Lovell was the one inside the home talking to Riley on a cell phone as Riley attempted to distract Pickett. Riley was disguised as an electrical worker surveying the property for a generator to be installed.

Cell phone records showed nine calls between 4:05 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 29 "pinging" on cell towers near Pickett's home from both men's phones.

Riley followed Pickett into the house, punched him and shoved him into the basement where he was beaten for two hours in an effort to find where Pickett hid his money.

The prosecutor said Lovell planned the robbery after Pickett paid him $4,000 in cash for paving his driveway on Oct. 20.

"They are both equally culpable. They cut the phone cords and left him there to die," Rose said in his closing argument.

Lovell's attorney Robbie Lang said no evidence puts Lovell at the scene of the crime. No fingerprints were found inside the home or on a receipt from the paving company

"Prosecutors and police concocted this grand theory," Lang told the jury.

Lang also disputed a key witness who place Lovell and Riley together the day after the crime. George Wilson, a former employee with Lovell's family business, was given immunity on drug dealing and money laundering charges.

Mark Sharrer, Riley's attorney, said Pickett identified the wrong man at the coaxing of a police officer in a photo line up.

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