Prosecutor: Mich. man killed anti-abortion activist, business owner to avenge his mother

Prosecutor: Mich. man killed 2 to avenge his mom

CORUNNA, Mich. — A man who has his mother’s name tattooed on his chest was out to avenge her when he killed an anti-abortion activist in a drive-by shooting and then gunned down her former boss in a small Michigan community, a prosecutor said Monday.

Jurors heard opening statements in the first-degree murder trial of Harlan Drake, 33, who has admitted shooting the men but claims he was insane last September and should not be found guilty.

James Pouillon, an aggressive activist, was shot four times while clutching a sign with a picture of a dead fetus near Owosso High School, 30 miles west of Flint. Gravel pit owner Mike Fuoss was shot 17 times in his office just outside Owosso.

Assistant Prosecutor Sara Edwards said Drake’s mother, Kim Staples, expressed “growing displeasure” with Pouillon the day before the shooting because children could see his sign.

“The defendant decided if Mr. Pouillon was in front of that high school on September 11th, he was going to kill him,” Edwards told the jury. “He told detectives if Mr. Pouillon was there he was going to make sure he wasn’t going to be there again.”

As for Fuoss, Staples was his former employee, and Drake believed he had not treated his mother well, the prosecutor said.

Drake, a trucker, was “passionate about two things: his family and his guns,” said Edwards, noting he has tattoos honoring his mother and wife.

Drake wanted to kill a third man whom he felt had “wronged” Staples, but police arrested him before he could act, the prosecutor said.

Dressed conservatively in a tie and sport coat, Drake, a bear of a man, occasionally smiled and nodded to people in the courtroom. His beard was neatly trimmed, unlike the thick growth in his police mugshot last summer.

Defense lawyer Robert Ashley said Drake killed the men, but “it’s not the whole story.” He told jurors his client was “severely mentally ill” at the time and traced the problems to a 2004 crash when Drake’s semi-truck slammed into a car in Ottumwa, Iowa, killing two teens.

The wreck wasn’t Drake’s fault, but he became depressed and “remains completely troubled by it to this day,” Ashley said. Drake attempted suicide in jail the day after the shootings.

Ashley said Drake committed “horrific acts” and then acted as if it was an ordinary day: He stopped for gas, called an operator to get a phone number for a real-estate agent he wanted to harm, and planned to return home to retrieve a school notebook for a niece.

“He did not appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct,” Ashley said.

Prosecutors plan to counter the insanity defense.

The witnesses Monday included Fuoss’ cousin, Norm Fuoss, a truck driver at the family gravel business. He said Mike Fuoss had heard about the first shooting on a police radio, apparently while Drake was on his way to kill him, too. The gunman’s identity was not known at the time.