TRAVERSE CITY -- Angry gasps arose from a courtroom crowd as Jerry Jay Anderson smugly told a judge he treated the woman he killed better than her family treated her.
Anderson at his Thursday sentencing told 13th Circuit Judge Philip Rodgers he's ready to go back to prison for viciously stabbing Gladys Jean Anderson in January.
But Anderson said he spent hours helping and comforting the Kingsley woman prior to slaying her.
"All these people sitting back here are full of sh--, your honor, and I hate to be that way about it, but they are," he said, referring to Gladys Anderson's friends and family who gathered for the sentencing. "So I ask that you go ahead and give me my life sentence and I can go on back to the jail."
Chanda Allen, Gladys Anderson's niece, shot back at Anderson through her tears when Rodgers gave her a chance to speak. Her voice boiled with grief and anger as she spoke to the shackled Anderson.
"Because of you, my three-year-old son will never see his aunt ever again. You can stand up here and you can lie, but every single family member standing back here loved her with their whole heart and their whole soul," she said. "... (Y)ou're a devil, you're a disgrace, and I'm sick of looking at you."
Rodgers sentenced Anderson to 50 to 75 years in prison on a charge of second-degree murder. Anderson pleaded guilty to the charge in June to avoid a trial, and Rodgers based the prison term on sentencing guidelines that take into account the severity of the offense and other factors.
Anderson, 47, already served 25 years in prison for a 1980 murder he committed in Wayne County.
Anderson met and married Gladys Anderson while still in prison, and the two divorced after his release. Anderson's court-appointed attorney, Michael Hall, told Rodgers that Anderson obtained his GED in prison and appeared to function well there.
"In the prison system he seems to have some viability, and I don't know if that's something that (underscored) this crime and the thoughtlessness and brutality that went (with) it," Hall said.
Police found Gladys Anderson's body in her Voice Road home about two months after Anderson repeatedly stabbed her. He poured bleach and ammonia on her body to cover the odor, Rodgers said.
Some of Anderson's family and friends weren't happy with the sentence. Anderson killed Brenda Barnett's father in 1980, and she's traveled to all of the recent proceedings. She's concerned a loophole will free Anderson from prison.
"It's not good enough. I don't feel justice was served," Barnett said. "Life in prison without parole, nothing else."
Anderson would only have been eligible for life in prison without parole had he pleaded to or been convicted of first-degree murder, said Jim Pappas, county chief assistant prosecutor.
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