By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
CENTREVILLE — Wade Allen will be spending time in prison for the 2019 murder of a Sturgis woman.
On June 1, Allen was sentenced in St. Joseph County 45th Circuit Court to 39 to 60 years in prison for second-degree homicide and two to five years for attempted dismemberment and mutilation in the May 2019 death of Kelly-Jien Warner-Miller, as well as 38 months to five years for attempted third-degree criminal sexual conduct in an unrelated incident.
Allen had pled no contest to the charges back in late January.
Allen was arrested on May 22, 2019, after Sturgis police officers responded to a tip regarding the murder and dismemberment of Warner-Miller. In searching Allen’s apartment, officers located the mutilated remains of Allen’s girlfriend being stored in two coolers.
The legality of the search was called into question during prior court hearings by Allen’s attorney at the time, current St. Joseph County Prosecutor David Marvin, as Allen allowed an officer inside his residence only after other officers told him he would be detained outside while they secured a search warrant. A motion to suppress the evidence gathered from the search was denied, and Michigan’s Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling in an unpublished opinion in November 2021, saying the body parts found in the coolers would’ve inevitably been found if a warrant had been issued.
While in jail, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s office, Allen reportedly spoke to his cellmates about having strangled his girlfriend to the point of death. After finding out that the cellmates had passed this information onto the authorities, Allen had sexually assaulted one of the inmates when they were re-housed together.
“I am grateful to the Sturgis Department of Public Safety, St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department, and the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office who spent countless hours on this case,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement at the time of Allen’s plea in January. “No sentence will be enough to overcome the grief of the victim’s family, or the anguish suffered by the victims, but hopefully today’s plea will allow the healing process to begin.”
The criminal sexual conduct charge will be served consecutive to the murder sentence, according to the Attorney General’s office. Allen’s sentencing also includes restitution for the victim’s burial expenses, recovery of court’s costs of prosecution, associated fines, and lifetime registration with the state’s sex offender registry.
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@threeriversnews.com.