Wade Allen sentenced in May 2019 Sturgis murder, dismemberment
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY — Sturgis resident Wade Allen, 39, will serve 37 and a half to 60 years in prison after pleading no contest to second-degree murder and attempted dismemberment of his girlfriend, Kelly Jean Warner, in May 2019.
St. Joseph County Circuit Judge Paul Stutesman also sentenced Allen to a consecutive 38 to 60 months after he pleaded no contest to attempted criminal sexual conduct third-degree. The attack on his cellmate occurred on Oct. 7, 2020, in the St. Joseph County Jail.
Allen will receive credit for 1,470 days spent in jail or psychiatric facilities where doctors determined he was competent to stand trial.
Allen entered the pleas the day before he was to stand trial in January.
On May 22, 2019, a man called 911 to report that Allen had dismembered Warner and stuffed her remains in a cooler in the defendant’s North Maple Street Sturgis apartment.
Prior story Wade Allen takes a plea deal in 2019 murder dismemberment case
Sturgis Police reports indicated Warner died a couple of weeks before.
When police arrived, Allen denied Warner was there. Allen allowed officers inside only after they told him he would be held outside while they obtained a search warrant. The subsequent search without a warrant found a cooler and the body.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in November 2021 that a warrant would have been issued, and the body would have been found.
Defense attorney Luke Nofsinger argued Allen suffered in near solitary jail confinement over the last four years.
The judge pointed out that the defense appeal of the search and the psychiatric evaluation delayed the case.
Allen never admitted to killing Warner in a rambling six-minute statement.
He cried as he told the judge, “I should have taken better care of her.” Warner was diabetic with other health issues.
Allen said he never took steps to get Warner help.
“I was trying to take care of myself, let alone someone else," he said.
With her family and friends in court, Allen sort of turned to them and said, “I have never, and I did not want her to die at all.”
“I asked the family to please forgive me. They don’t have to. But with or without their forgiveness, I have to forgive myself,” Allen said
Allen admitted, “We had a problem. We also forgave each other.” He claimed police took and lost a love letter written by Warner after she brought a domestic violence charge against him.
Assistant attorney general Danielle Hagamann-Clark said Allen, “Fails to recall the times that he was physically abusive to both KJ (Warner) as well as to other prior intimate partners. He has a long-established cycle of abuse both to KJ (Warner) as well as to others dating back many years.” She was prepared to enter that evidence at trial.
Hagamann-Clark said Allen was a menace to society and asked for the maximum guideline sentence.
The victim of the jail sexual assault appeared on video from a state prison. He told the judge the conduct “was not consensual,” adding Allen was “a monster.”
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Because county prosecutor David Marvin once represented Allen, he referred the case to the Attorney General as a special prosecutor because of the conflict.
---Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DReidTDR
This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Wade Allen sentenced in May 2019 Sturgis murder, dismemberment
