LANSING — Family members of Christine Cambric and Jason McKenzie sobbed softly in the back of a courtroom on Dec. 12 as a judge sentenced the man who killed the two cousins to more than 35 years in prison.
“The only words I have is, I’m sorry for your loss,” Ingham County Circuit Judge Wanda Stokes told family members before sentencing Dennis Joshua Whaley to 33 years, four months to 50 years in prison for second-degree murder, plus the mandatory two years for felony firearm possession. The latter term must be served first, and Whaley will get credit for the 590 days he’d spent in custody.
Prosecutors asked her to impose those sentences, which exceeded the range recommended under state sentencing guidelines. Stokes said the guidelines did not properly account for some factors and would be tantamount to a slap on the wrist for Whaley, who repeatedly shot Cambric and McKenzie, who were not armed, with an assault-style rifle on April 18, 2024.
“These victims were helpless and came to a merciless death,” she noted.
Whaley, 53, was Cambric’s on-again, off-again boyfriend of about 10 years, and McKenzie was Cambric’s cousin. Whaley and Cambric lived at the Woodrow Avenue house where the shootings happened.
After the shooting, Whaley left the area in Cambric’s car and later called police to turn himself in. He was arrested about three days after the shooting in the area of Crego Park and eventually directed police to where he had hidden the rifle.
In his trial, Whaley testified that he didn’t intend to harm anybody and characterized the shootings as accidental.
But Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane and Assistant Prosecutor Nattalie Macomber contended Whaley “executed” McKenzie and Cambric in a fit of jealously and had spelled out his intentions a few days earlier in a social media message to McKenzie’s girlfriend.
MORE: Greater Lansing homicide tracker 2025
In the message, Whaley complained about McKenzie and Cambric carrying on “like they are a couple” and said he was going “to off” McKenzie. The message also said, the “succubus needs to be gone or bad things will happen,” and “I’m losing my shit and I’m about to snap.”
“There’s nothing ambiguous about any of the threats within this message,” Macomber said in her closing argument. “The words that were intentionally used were just that, intentional.”
But the jury gave Whaley the benefit of the doubt, convicting him on two counts of second-degree murder, rather than first-degree, premeditated murder, as prosecutors had asked. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without chance of parole.
On Tuesday, Macomber said her office accepts the jury’s verdict but didn’t believe the guidelines range was adequate. She said Whaley has failed to accept responsibility or shown any empathy or remorse.
She also noted that a domestic violence warrant was pending against him in connection with an incident prior to the the murder.
That incident happened the previous November, when Lansing police were called after Cambric and Whaley had gotten into an argument about bills, according to court records. Cambric told officers that Whaley kicked her four times, and days earlier, he’d pushed her out of bed, causing what she thought could have been a hairline shoulder fracture, the records indicate.
Lansing police on Jan. 4, 2024, obtained an arrest warrant for Whaley on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge, but he was not arrested before the April 18, 2024, killings.
Whaley declined to address Stokes on Tuesday. His attorney, Steven Freeman, said there was no reason to believe Whaley would present a danger to society once he gets out of prison and asked for a minimum sentence of about 19 years − the low end of the guidelines range.
Cambric’s daughter, Tagan Adkins, described her as “a kind, loving mother” and an “amazing human being.” Adkins said she has nightmares about Whaley “murdering mom and coming back for me.” She and other family members asked Stokes to give Whaley a life sentence.
“The pain I feel now is something I wouldn’t wish on anybody,” she said.
Stokes said there was no evidence the two victims showed any aggression toward Whaley before he shot them numerous times with a high-powered rifle..
“Your actions on April 18, 2024, Mr. Whaley, left two people robbed of their life,” she said.
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Man gets decades in prison in 2024 double murder in Lansing
Reporting by Ken Palmer, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
