Convicted murderer sentenced for assaulting Ingham County Jail deputy

Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal
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LANSING — A convicted murderer who nearly killed a corrections deputy at the Ingham County Jail last year while awaiting trial drew prison sentences Wednesday in connection with the attack.

Willie Charles Woods, 28, already was serving mandatory life in prison without parole for the 2020 killing of a man in Lansing. He was sentenced to 78 months to 10 years for assault with intent to do great bodily harm and 32 months to four years for disarming an officer.

"You need to stop," Public Defender Steven Feigelson tells client Willie Charles Woods, 27, as Woods continues cursing at Judge Rosemarie Aquilina during his sentencing hearing at Veteran's Courthouse in Lansing, Wednesday, April 5, 2023. Wood was found guilty of first-degree murder, where he brutally stabbed and killed 66-year-old Ernie Bell in 2020. Displaying no remorse, he told Aquilina: "Why don't you give me my time so I can get out of here?"

"There is no ability to rehabilitate you," Ingham County Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina told Woods, adding that she hopes the sentences send a message that "peace-keeping officers" deserve to be respected.

The jail attack happened in January 2023, while Woods was awaiting trial in the killing of Erwin Stanley Bell, 66, who suffered dozens of knife wounds and blunt-force trauma to his face in November 2020. Woods was convicted of first-degee murder and armed robbery following a jury trial.

Woods ambushed a female deputy as she was doing her rounds and twice knocked her unconscious, authorities said. He pleaded no contest to disarming an officer and assault with intent to do great bodily harm. A count of assault with intent to murder was dismissed.

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An agreement set his minimum sentences at 32 months and 78 months, respectively. Both sentences issued by Aquilina Wednesday exceeded the range recommended under state sentencing guidelines.

"It if wasn't for other inmates yelling to stop this (attack), we do not know if she would be able to be here ...," Assistant Ingham County Prosecutor Andrea McCray told Aquilina on Wednesday. McCray said she was "blown away by how kind she was and how forgiving she was" when she first met the corrections officer.

Woods, who hurled insults at Aquilina during his murder sentencing last April, declined to address the judge on Wednesday after Aquilina declined his request to look directly at the deputy in the courtroom while speaking.

"She is very powerful, very forgiving and very fearless," the judge said about the corrections deputy. "She has self control. You have no self control. You only have rage. Every time you fly into a rage, you land very, very badly."

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Convicted murderer sentenced for assaulting Ingham County Jail deputy