Garry artman

Garry Artman, 65, enters a Kent County Circuit Courtroom for the first day of trial on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. Artman is charged with open murder for the 1996 killing of Sharon Hammack. (Bradley Massman | MLive.com)By Bradley Massman | bmassman@mlive.comGRAND RAPIDS, MI – A man accused of killing a young, pregnant woman 27 years ago in Grand Rapids had developed a strong hatred of women in the years prior, Kent County prosecutors allege.The murder trial against Garry Artman started Monday afternoon, Sept. 25, where a jury heard opening arguments from prosecutors and the defense. Artman, 65, is charged with open murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct in the 1996 slaying of 29-year-old Sharon Hammack.The case is being tried by Kent County Assistant Prosecutors Elizabeth Bartlett and Blair Lachman.RELATED: Jury seated in trial for man accused of woman’s 1996 Grand Rapids killingIn her opening statement, Bartlett referred to excerpts from Artman’s old journals discovered by investigators.“The strange thing is I never felt guilty about raping them,” Bartlett said, reading a portion of one journal entry.Hammack, who worked as a prostitute, was found bound and wrapped in a blanket on the side of the road Oct. 3, 1996, near 76th Street and Kraft Avenue in Caledonia Township. She had been stabbed twice but died of strangulation.Bartlett told jurors that evidence presented throughout the trial will show that Artman is a man who didn’t like rejection.“You are going to see through the mind of a killer,” she said. " … But it’s not really murder when these women deserved it – that’s the mindset (he has).”A photo of 30-year-old Sharon Hammack standing with her two children is shown in a Kent County Circuit Courtroom on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. Garry Artman, 65, is on trial for open murder and first-degree criminal sexual

This undated image provided by the Michigan Department of Corrections shows Garry Dean Artman. Authorities in western Michigan are looking into missing persons cases and unsolved homicides after speaking with Artman, a convicted murderer and long-haul truck driver who died last week in his hospital bed. Kent County sheriff's detectives interviewed Artman on three occasions before he died Thursday, Dec. 28, 2023, at a state Corrections health facility in Jackson, Mich. (Michigan Department of Corrections via AP)TOPICS:MichiganMurderArtmanDetectivesInterviewsUnsolvedHomicideInvestigationAuthorities in western Michigan are looking into missing persons cases and unsolved homicides after interviewing a convicted murderer and long-haul truck driver with terminal cancer who died last week in a prison hospital.Kent County sheriff's detectives questioned Garry Artman on three occasions before his death Thursday at a state Corrections health facility in Jackson, Michigan.Kent County Lt. Eric Brunner said detectives “gleaned information” from their interviews with Artman and are collaborating with other law enforcement agencies to “connect the dots with missing pieces or homicide cases that are still open."Brunner would not say which unsolved cases are being looked into or how many cases are being investigated, although police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, have tied Artman to a woman's disappearance nearly 30 years ago.“Interviews with Artman provided enough information to reasonably conclude he was involved in the 1995 disappearance of Cathleen Dennis but that it is very unlikely that Dennis’ body will ever be found,” a Grand Rapids police spokeswoman said Wednesday.Grand Rapids detectives also met with Artman before his death and are trying to determine if he is connected to other missing persons or homicide cases in that city, the spokeswoman said in an email.WOOD-TV first reported Artman was being investigated in other cases.John Pyrski, Artman’s court-appointed lawyer, told The Associated Press Wednesday that he didn't know if Artman had committed other murders. But “if he did, I'm glad he made everything right in the end” by disclosing them, Pyrski added.Artman, 66, had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. A Michigan jury in September convicted him of the 1996 rape and murder of Sharon Hammack, 29, in Kent County. He was sentenced in

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A deathbed confession by a convicted killer has shed light on previously unresolved murders in the Grand Rapids area. Garry Artman, who recently passed away due to lung cancer, admitted to 11 murders, including the 1996 murder of a Grand Rapids woman and a woman found in Maryland. He never faced charges for these crimes. Additionally, he admitted to the murder of nine other individuals.Artman, a long-haul trucker, reached out to detectives shortly before his death to confess. His confession took place in a prison hospital in Jackson.One of the murder victims was Sharon Hammack, whose body was discovered strangled and stabbed near a metro Grand Rapids road in 1996. Another victim was Dusty Shuck, whose body was found beaten and stabbed to death near a truck stop off I-70 in Maryland in 2006. DNA evidence linked Artman to Shuck’s case.Despite the confession, families of Artman’s victims may never find closure, as some of the bodies may never be recovered. However, authorities are now using the details from Artman’s confession to investigate unsolved murders in the area.Artman was convicted for the 1996 murder of Sharon Hammack in September 2023

A Florida trucker was charged with the 2006 cold-case murder of a 24-year-old woman in Maryland weeks after he was arrested for the 1996 killing of a 29-year-old woman in Michigan, authorities announced.Garry Artman, 64, of White Springs, Florida, was linked to both slayings by DNA evidence. The body of Dusty Myriah Shuck, 24, was found May 4, 2006, dumped on the shoulder of the I-70 freeway in Frederick County, Maryland. She had been stabbed to death.She had no shoes or identifying information on her — but a pair of dragon tattoos on her back under the phrase “Gypsy Rose” helped authorities identify her. Shuck was last seen April 24 in her home state of New Mexico at a local hotel. Investigators suspected the killer might be a truck driver after she was discovered so far from home — but they were unable to turn up any solid leads. The Combined DNA Index System matched a sample from the 1996 cold-case killing of mother of two Sharon Hammack in Michigan to the 2006 murder — but police didn’t have a suspect. A break came this year when advancements in DNA testing led the Kent County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan to connect Artman to the 1996 death of Hammack. Hammack, who was pregnant, was found in a ditch bound, strangled and stabbed in the head Oct. 3 in Caledonia Township. She had also been sexually assaulted. Artman was hit with murder, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and other charges in her gruesome killing.The office contacted Maryland State Police investigators and supplied them with a DNA swab from Artman, which matched the sample taken from the body of Shuck in 2006.The Kent County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant Aug. 31 on a storage unit in Florida that belongs to Artman.Authorities found several pieces of women’s underwear, which are being tested for DNA to see if they match other victims, officials said.Artman is charged with murder and assault in Shuck’s death. [....]