🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨
🚨NO ISLAMIC JIHADISTS INVOLVED🚨
WXYZ-TV Detroit | Channel 7 published April 16, 2025: Two charged in double murder appear in court. The two people accused of murder in a kidnapping plot at a Northfield Township home appeared in court for a preliminary hearing where they were bound over for trial.
Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV published April 17, 2025: Video creates clearer timeline of what happened after foster family murder in Washtenaw County. Two of three suspects charged in the murder of a foster family in Washtenaw County were bound over for trial on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, and surveillance video from the night of the attack was played in court.
Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV published April 16, 2025: 2 men charged in Washtenaw County foster family murder bound over for trial.
Two of the three people charged in the double murder of a foster family in Washtenaw County were in court on Wednesday, and a judge ruled that there is enough evidence to send them to trial. Here's when the judge made his decision.
Click On Detroit
written by Sara Powers, Digital Content Producer
Wednesday April 16, 2025
WASHTENAW COUNTY, Mich. – Two of the three people charged in the double murder of a foster family in Washtenaw County were in court on Wednesday, and a judge ruled that there is enough evidence to send them to trial.
Gregory Callhan, 37, and Keith Finley, 60, appeared in court before Washtenaw County Judge Cedric Simpson on Wednesday, April 16, for their preliminary examinations.
Vinson, Callhan and Finely are accused of being involved in the murder of Jennifer Bernhard, 42, and Stevie Smith, 74, and the attempted murder of Jeffrey Bernhard, 53, on Nollar Bend Road in Northfield Township on Jan. 1, 2025.
Vinson didn’t appear in court, but has a competency hearing scheduled for May 22.
Callhan and Finely were bound over to stand trial. A pretrial date was set for June 25.
The judge made his decision after hearing emotional testimony from Bernhard, who recalled what happened the night of the shooting, along with testimony from several others.
Here’s what we learned from those who were called to testify:
Jeffrey Bernhard recalls night of attack
Bernhard testified that he was upstairs in his bedroom, which is right above the garage, when he heard something outside. He looked out a window and saw that there was a vehicle in the driveway.
When he went down the stairs, he mentioned it to his wife, Jennifer, who said it was probably an Amazon driver.
So, Jeffrey said he went to the mudroom to put his shoes on so he could go out to the garage and potentially get the package, but before he had put his shoes on, he said he heard a large commotion happening in the front of the house.
‘It was a scream of terror’
“I heard some screams from the two girls, and it wasn’t uncommon for two of the girls to scream, they scream all the time having fun, but I think we remember hearing my wife scream, and it was a scream I will never forget, and it was a scream of terror,” said Bernhard.
Bernhard said he walked over that way and saw three people inside his home, and that one pointed a gun at him and told him to sit down.
The father said that because of threats previously made related to his foster daughter, he immediately knew it was Vinson before he even saw her face. Bernhard said he didn’t know the other two individuals.
All three defendants allegedly had weapons. Bernhard and his wife were seated in the kitchen area of the home. When this was happening, his father-in-law was in the den, but the two men went and brought him into the kitchen, where he was killed.
Bernhard said at the time that, because of the previous threats, he believed the whole incident was related to Vinson getting the foster child.
He said he and his wife were trying to be as calm as possible, answering Vinson’s questions and trying to de-escalate. While Vinson was pointing a gun at them and questioning them, the other two men were allegedly moving around the house frantically, according to Bernhard.
Vinson kept asking where the money was.
Bernhard said they didn’t keep a safe inside the home and said, “I had a few hundred dollars in my wallet. I said, ‘Take my wallet.’ We got some electronics for Christmas. I told her to take that.” But they weren’t interested.
The father testified that Vinson took his wallet and credit cards, along with his phone, which she used to transfer $5,000 from his account via Zelle using the bank information that she had demanded from Bernhard.
She instructed the two men to take his wife’s phone, and one tried to destroy it with a knife.
Bernhard said Vinson had called the foster daughter into the kitchen to get her boots and coat on and instructed the two men to take her. Bernhard said the foster child was scared during this and that it took a few minutes because she wanted to hug the foster parents before she left.
Father recalls moment he was shot
At one point, Bernhard said he believes he must have said something to trigger Vinson, because he was hit in the face with what he believed was the butt of a gun.
The father said this was the first act of violence. He was also the first one to be shot.
He was first shot in his chest, right above his heart and shortly after that, he was shot in the face. He said after being shot it was like a river of blood was flowing from his head, and said fell face-first on the ground. Bernhard said he prayed as he lay there and then passed out.
Bernhard was not sure how long he was out for, but said when he regained consciousness, he knew he needed to go find help and went to the neighbor’s house.
‘I knew she was dead’
“As I sat there and put my shoes on before I stood up I looked over at my wife who was sitting right next to me and that’s going to be probably the hardest thing for me to ever deal with, because I saw my wife sitting there with her head down and just blood flowing from her head. And I knew; I didn’t have to say a word, I knew she was dead.”
The suspects were gone when Bernhard went to his neighbor’s house.
During his cross-examination, Bernhard said he believes that it was Vinson who shot him, but that he wasn’t sure. He said he didn’t know who shot his wife and father-in-law because he had already been shot at that point.
The father said he never gave them permission to enter the home and wasn’t sure how long they were inside his home for, but said it was longer than 15 minutes and felt like longer than 30 minutes.
Throughout the situation, Bernhard said there was little response from either of the men, and that he never heard them tell Vinson, “No, don’t do it.”
There was damage in other areas of the house, such as on the banisters of the stairs and the front door, and jewelry was also allegedly taken.
When discussing his injuries, Bernhard said he would never have vision in his right eye again, and isn’t able to get a prosthetic due to the extent of his injuries.
Deputy recalls finding the suspects
The next person called to testify was Washtenaw County Sheriff Deputy Von Heath, who has worked with the department for two years.
Heath was on patrol during his shift on Jan. 1 and was handling another service call when he heard the emergency alert for a shooting that had occurred in Northfield Township.
He said he was made aware that one of the suspects had been identified, and learned that it was a woman with the last name Vinson.
Deputies used Vinson’s name to determine she had ties to a residence in Ypsilanti Township, which is where Vinson’s grandmother lives, and once Heath was done with his previous call, he headed that way.
Another deputy was already in the area and observed a car leaving the residence, but was waiting for additional units before he made contact.
As Heath was arriving, the other deputy said he was making contact with a male and a female.
He detained the man, and when that was happening, the woman walked up. When he was trying to detain the woman, Heath arrived.
Heath said the arrest didn’t appear to be going well, and the other deputy was still trying to get one of her arms behind her back.
The other deputy had told Heath that the vehicle he was looking for was on Rowley Court, which is in the same neighborhood as foster child’s grandmother’s home.
It was a black or blue Honda that was down at the dead end that he hadn’t seen come out of the area yet.
Heath went to look for it and located a blue Honda Civic, but it was unoccupied. They later learned that this wasn’t the suspect vehicle.
After that, the other deputy said he needed help detaining the woman because she was resisting arrest, so Heath ran over to him and helped put handcuffs on her.
He didn’t know who she was at the time, but later learned it was Vinson. He said he found pepper spray on her, and other deputies found a handgun on her.
When they went back over to the car, the other deputy told Heath that it wasn’t the vehicle he had been following. The other deputy looked further down the street and observed a black Honda HR-V at the dead end, and said that was the vehicle he’d been following.
They, along with other deputies who arrived at the scene, found two males and a child.
The man in the backseat was identified as Keith Finley
Heath took Finley into custody, while others assisted with the child, who was later identified as Bernhard’s 10-year-old daughter, and took the other man into custody.
Deputy finds crack pipe, jewelry on one suspect
Deputy Bryan Tripp with the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s office was the next person called to testify.
Tripp has worked as a deputy with the sheriff’s office for just over four years.
On Jan. 1, 2025, he was patrolling in Superior Township and said he went to the area of Lexington Parkway and Rowley Court after a “Be on the Lookout” was put out for a shooting in Northfield Township.
It was reported that the victim’s phone was in the suspect’s vehicle, and the phone pinged in Superior Township.
Tripp and his partner went to check it out, and that’s when another deputy reported that he was possibly with the vehicle, so they headed there.
When he arrived, two individuals were already detained, so they began looking for anyone else who might be around.
Tripp was among the deputies who approached the suspect vehicle.
Tripp was on the passenger side and said the front passenger seat suspect was Gregory Callhan, whom he detained.
He said a young girl and another slightly older male were in the backseat of the car. During the investigation, he learned that the backseat passenger was Keith Finley.
When Tripp detained Callhan, he walked him over to his patrol car and tried to get ID off of him, which he didn’t have, and when he asked for his name, he gave him a fake one.
Tripp couldn’t find that name in their system, so he asked for his real name and was able to pull a picture of him from their system. He was taken into custody.
At the station, Tripp searched him again, and the defendant told him he had a crack pipe in his sock. Tripp retrieved the pipe, along with three credit cards, two of which belonged to Bernhard, jewelry, and about $50 in cash.
Tripp also noticed that there was blood spatter on the outside of both of Callhan’s shoes. He said he wasn’t involved with locating the gun in the backseat, but never saw it himself.
Callhan was at the sheriff’s office until Northfield Township officers arrived.
Deputy Brandon Diacono discusses responding to the neighbor’s 911 call, finding the foster child
The next person who was called to give testimony on the case was Brandon Diacono, who has been a Northfield Township police officer for about five years.
He was dispatched to Nollar Bend Drive on Jan. 1 at about 8:33 p.m.
Diacono said that dispatch told him that the neighbor notified dispatch that Bernhard was on his porch and that he had been shot in the face.
When he arrived, he noticed Bernhard’s right eye was swollen all the way shut, and that he had blood all over him.
Diacono said Bernhard seemed out of breath and stressed, but was able to answer his questions pretty calmly despite the circumstances.
He said Bernhard told him that Vinson shot him, and that she had been in his home with two other males. Bernhard also told the officer that his wife was dead.
Once Bernhard was taken to the hospital, Diacono continued to interview the neighbor before being told there was an address in Ypsilanti that he should respond to, which was Vinson’s mother’s house.
He was notified that deputies had located the foster child, and was at a home with Vinson’s mother.
Diacono said the foster child was in the grandmother’s home when he arrived, but none of the suspects were there. When they were apprehended, he heard it over his radio.
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