ADRIAN — A judge set April 4 as the date for the preliminary examination for an accessory after-the-fact charge against the son of a Tecumseh, Mich., man charged with murdering his wife nearly four years ago.
Jaron Warner, 28, also is charged with tampering with evidence in the death and disappearance of Dee Ann Warner.
Later Monday morning in Lenawee County Circuit Court, Judge Michael Olsaver heard arguments but issued no ruling regarding a motion by lawyers for Dale Warner, 57, seeking to quash the tampering with evidence charge in his case.
Defense lawyer Mary Chartier-Mittendorf argued that at no time during the elder Mr. Warner’s preliminary examination last year did prosecutors ever present evidence supporting the tampering charge.
“It’s not sufficient now to pop up and say, ‘Now we’re referencing this and now we’re referencing that,’” Ms. Chartier-Mittendorf said. “... I don't know if the government forgot Count 2 or decided the evidence was not there."
At the very least, the defense lawyer said, prosecutors should produce a bill of particulars detailing all the case’s evidence.
“We shouldn’t have to wait until trial to find out” what all the evidence is, Ms. Chartier-Mittendorf said. “We should know that ahead of time because it’s the government’s job to provide notice to the defense.”
Jackie Wyse, an assistant county prosecutor, said Mrs. Warner’s body, missing at the time of last year’s hearing, was the issue. Had its location been known, she said, the body would have provided evidence of Mrs. Warner’s cause and manner of death.
Judge Olsaver said he had not yet read the entire transcript of the proceedings in May and June, after which Dale Warner’s case was bound over from district court to circuit court and would issue a written ruling on the defense motion.
Mrs. Warner’s remains were found late last year inside a fertilizer tank on the Warner farmstead outside Tecumseh. The tank allegedly had been cut open and then welded closed and repainted.
A probate judge had ruled her dead earlier last year and listed April 24, 2021, the day she was last seen by others, as her date of death. Charging documents against her husband list April 25, when Mrs. Warner’s relatives reported her missing.
Dale Warner is charged with open murder in the case and is scheduled for trial starting Sept. 2.
Jaron Warner was charged last month by the Michigan State Police with tampering with evidence and accessory after the fact to a felony. He is accused of helping his father after Mrs. Warner’s death.
His appearance Monday, accompanied by lawyer Colin Daniels of Bloomfield Hills-based Rockind Law, for a formal determination of probable cause was officially a district court proceeding although Judge Olsaver presided over it.
The preliminary examination, which functions similarly to a grand jury hearing but is conducted in open court, is scheduled to start at 9 a.m.
Dale Warner, who appeared in court Monday via video, remained in the Lenawee County jail Monday in lieu of $15 million bond, while his son previously posted $125,000 bond.
First Published March 10, 2025, 6:11 p.m.
