GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The man accused in a 27-year-old cold case is now a convicted killer.
A jury decided Garry Artman is guilty in the 1996 sexual assault and murder of Sharron Hammack.
Artman was arrested in 2022 and charged in what was one of West Michigan's coldest cases.
Hammack was pregnant with a son at the time of her murder, already a mother of two young children.
Her body was discovered on October 3, 1996, on 76th St SE, between Patterson Ave. and Kraft Ave. in Caledonia Township.
The jury needed less than a hour of deliberations before returning a verdict, convicting Artman on all three counts: open murder, felony murder, and first degree criminal sexual conduct.
Thursday’s proceedings began with the jury outside the courtroom.
Artman’s attorney brought a motion for a direct verdict, asking Judge Scott Noto to dismiss the charge of open murder against his client, citing there was not sufficient evidence presented suggesting Artman did anything beyond have sex with Hammack. Judge Noto replied in, “In looking at the DNA in this case, particularly the DNA on the blanket wrapped around Ms. Hammack, the DNA under her fingernail clippings, the DNA found in her vaginal and rectal areas, all of which correlate with the defendant, Mr Artman, I consider how she was tied, naked and hogtied."
Judge Noto finished, “Defense motion is denied.”
Once the jury was brought in to the courtroom, prosecutors began giving their closing statement.
THE STATE’S CLOSING ARGUMENTS—
Prosecutors began their final statements echoing something Dr. Cohle had previously said during trial, regarding how long it takes someone to die from being strangled.
With a photo from Hammack’s autopsy up on a screen, he let a full two minute timer elapse in silence.
“Two to three minutes is a lifetime to think and to contemplate, to stop… There is no question what Mr Artman was doing, and what he was thinking,” they told the jury.
They spoke about Artman’s journals that were introduced as evidence during trial, including an alleged letter he wrote to one of his brothers.
“All the girls I wanted to have and couldn't when I was growing up in high school, I can now get,” he apparently wrote.
Artman spent more than a decade in prison after being convicted in a 1980 sexual assault.
Prosecutors claimed, “when he gets out in ’92, the plan is in place.”
“He’s gone from a rapist to a killer.”
Prosecutors hit hard on the DNA evidence in the case, particularly the samples taken from Hammack’s vaginal and anal areas. They say it was only the DNA of two people found in both locations— Hammack’s and Artman’s.
In regards to the electric blanket Hammack was found wrapped inside— Prosecutors say Hammack’s DNA was not found on the outisde of the blanket, meaning she did not wrap herself up. Artman’s DNA was found on the exterior of the blanket.
Artman lived within 5 miles from where Hammack worked the streets.
Prosecutors ended their statement with another quote from Artman’s journaling, “You ask yourself who you are. Here is who you are: you are death itself to those who deserve it and life to those who live it,” it read.
When it was time for a rebuttal to closing arguments made by the defense, another journal entry was read. “The strange thing is I never felt guilty about raping them,” Artman allegedly wrote.
“Fear yes. Angry yes. But not guilty.”
THE DEFENSE’S CLOSING ARGUMENTS—
While prosecutors presented a stream of witnesses and experts to explain investigative processes, the defense chose not to call anyone to the stand. Artman’s attorney focused much of his time on the notion that Artman had paid Hammack for consensual sexual acts. “He was a customer of her,” he said. “That’s what she did, unfortunately.”
He said that prosecutors were displaying photos from Hammack’s autopsy during the trial as a “red herring”, or a meaningless distraction.
In regards to Artman’s DNA found on her body, he said it was merely from having consensual sex with her.
Speaking of the ropes found binding her arms and legs, he said it didn’t come from Artman. “Theres been no evidence my client forced her to do anything,” his attorney posited.
“Don’t convict Garry Artman because he has other characteristics that cannot be proven,” he finished his statement.
THE JURY GETS THE CASE—
At 11:22 a.m. Judge Noto began the process of giving the jury their instructions for deliberating.
They must decide if Artman is guilty or innocent on three coiunts: open murder, felony murder, and first degree criminal sexual conduct.
“As jurors you must decide what the facts of this case are. This is your job and nobody else’s,” he told the group of ten men and four women.
“You must think about all the evidence and then decide what each piece of evidence means, and how important you think it is.”
While a jury in criminal cases consist of just 12 people, two people were chosen as back up jurors in case anything happens with others on the jury.
Juror #4 (a female) and Juror #57 (a man) were picked as the standby jurors just before the group was sent to begin deliberations.
Jurors were given the ability to find Artman guilty of either first degree murder, or manslaughter in regards to the ‘open murder’ charge.
In order to consider manslaughter over murder, Judge Noto explained they must believe that Artman’s “thinking must be disturbed by emotional excitement to the point that a reasonable person might have acted on impulse without thinking twice from passion, instead of judgment.”
Jurors began the process of deliberating at 11:44 a.m. Thursday.
GARRY DEAN ARTMAN’S ARREST—
When Hammack was murdered back in 1996, there was talk in the media that the person responsible for her death could be involved in other similar killings.
Reports from 1996 say a task force was put together, made up of 6 police agencies, to investigate the murders of 9 women.
"All nine were white women, most had dark hair and many of them had been strangled," an Associated Press article from 1996 reads.
"In each case, police are facing difficulties in finding a killer. Three bodies were so decomposed, investigators didn't know how they died."
Rudimentary DNA testing was done on several items found at the scene of Hammack’s body, but nothing concrete came from the results.
“In 1996, the MSP would have been at the very early stages of doing DNA in the state police system,” Katherine Meredith with the Michigan State Police (MSP) explained during the trial. “We are (now) able to detect DNA profiles from less quantity of DNA in a sample than what would have been required in the 1990s,” she said.
It wouldn’t be until 2019 when a detective with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office submitted some DNA samples to Identifinders, a genetic geneology company, that a true break in the case would emerge.
Identifinders was able to trace the DNA samples from the crime scene to Artman’s family tree. They were able to identify that the suspect DNA came from one of the four sons of the Artman family.
Detectives were then able to determine that Artman was living in the same area as Hammack was at the time of her murder. Artman has previously been convicted of criminal sexual conduct, serving an 11 year sentence in the Michigan prison system.
"For all the resources and everything we could do at that point in time, we couldn't solve it then," Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker explained at an August 2022 press conference announcing their arrest of Artman.
"It had to take, you know, progression of the technology that we have in terms of DNA to be able to bring a solution to this case."
THE TRIAL BEGINS
Prosecutors said earlier in the week during trial that Artman and Hammack had met up prior to her death, as she was doing sex work at the time. They met in person at least one time for a specific sexual act, but Hammack was left disturbed afterwards.
“She said he was a creep, and he would get rough, and force girls to do things they didn’t want to do,” a friend of Hammack said on the stand Tuesday.
Despite this, Artman was allegedly trying to persuade Hammack to come meet up with him again. Her friend described on the stand a time in which Artman had been calling Hammack about a “gift” he wanted to give her.
Hammack brought this friend with her to a hotel room, where Hammack became quickly uneasy. The pair were quick to leave the room, but her friend said it left a bad taste in his mouth.
Artman is accused of tracking the young mother down, kidnapping her, sexually assaulting her, and then killing her.
A former roommate of Artman spoke from the stand on Wednesday, talking about some of his more disturbing qualities he exhibited at the time. “Did he ever tell you he used prostitutes?” she was asked by prosecutors. “Yes, he did. Two different times, he told me,” Clawson replied.
She spoke about a time she was living with Artman when she began experiencing “visions” about Artman committing violence against women. One night, she says she confronted him about this.
“He, at first, said he hadn’t done anything, then he admitted he had, and if I told anyone I would be killed,” she recalled.
“He admitted he had been involved in satanic worshipping in the past, ritual abuse.”
THE AUTOPSY
Prosecutors described the state she was left in, bound with a number of different cords and rope.
“She was wrapped in a blanket, like an electric blanket. She had numerous segments of cord that secured her in the blanket. That was removed and I saw her arms and legs were extensively tied up with electrical cords, as well as a shoe lace,” Kent County Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Cohle explained in court.
Dr. Cohle described seeing signs of Petechiae on Hammack’s face during his investigation.
Petechiae are often observed as little “purple pin points”, as Dr. Cohle explained.
“These are pinpoint hemorages.”
Petechiae results from the rupture of small capilaries in the face, because blood flow is being restriced. It is often seen in eyelids, and in the area around the eyes.
“That would have to be quite a bit of pressure around the neck,” Dr. Cohle observed while prosecutors showed photos from Hammack’s autopsy in court.
He recalled “numerous abrasions, some bruises all over her body. Two stab wounds in the scalp, and there was some blood that leaked from these onto her clothing and front of her body, though these were not fatal.
While her body was apparently covered in these wounds, Dr. Cohle said her actual cause of death was asphyxia by strangulation.
MOVING FORWARD
With Thursday's conviction, Artman faces life in prison without the chance at parole for the first degree murder charge. His official sentence won't be handed down until a hearing later this year.
