Man sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in 2021 double murder in Adrian

ADRIAN — A heated verbal exchange broke out Friday in a Lenawee County courtroom between people in the gallery and a man who killed two registered sex offenders after he was sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

Christopher Lee-Ryan Carden, 37, was escorted out of Circuit Judge Michael R. Olsaver’s courtroom by four court officers for several minutes while the upset people were removed from the courtroom. Carden was brought back so that he could be presented with the notice of his right to appeal the sentence.

Olsaver had just ordered Carden to serve 41 years and nine months to 75 years for shooting to death Samuel Compton, 82, and Robert Braman Sr., 67, on Jan. 15, 2021, in the home they shared in Adrian and two to five years for stealing Braman’s car.

The sentence on each of the second-degree murder counts was less than the 50 to 75 years recommended by the circuit court probation office.

In April 2022, Carden accepted an agreement to plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of unlawful driving away of an automobile. If the case had gone to trial, he could have been convicted of first-degree murder, which is punishable by life in prison without parole.

Carden’s daughter was abused by two men while he was in prison on narcotics and breaking-and-entering charges. Compton had been charged, and another man, Ernest Black, was charged a few months later. Braman was not involved, Lenawee County Assistant Prosecutor Douglas Hartung said.

Carden's ex-wife, Jaimee Lee Carden, 37, is serving up to 40 years in prison for allowing their daughter to be molested. She was sentenced in January to 12 1/2 to 40 years in prison on a first-degree child abuse charge and five to 10 years in prison for assault with intent to do great bodily harm. She also is serving 16 months to two years in prison on a fleeing police charge from a separate incident.

Acknowledging Carden’s desire for retribution against the men who molested his daughter and his cooperation with law enforcement in providing information and testifying in other cases, Olsaver said Carden's actions were not heroic, as some may think. To condone Carden’s actions “would be essentially to embrace the vigilante nature of society, that when anyone felt appropriately aggrieved or wronged, they could decide when and where and what the punishment should be. That amounts to a rejection of a civilized society.”

“So a just, civilized society to you is having sex offenders running around?” Carden asked after Olsaver had finished pronouncing the sentences, which included $2,111 in restitution for funeral costs and 1,211 days’ credit for time already served in jail since Carden was arrested.

As Olsaver started to answer him, Carden turned and said something to Braman’s daughter in the gallery, who had earlier given a victim impact statement to the court. She had told Olsaver and Carden that him murdering her father robbed her of any opportunity to reconcile with him. Court officers surrounded Carden as some in the gallery walked out and others rose their voices, with one man telling Carden to “chill” and asking officers to let him talk to him.

Olsaver had officers remove the people who had become verbally upset from the courtroom, with one man heard saying, “This court’s f------ bulls---.” As shouting continued, Olsaver told one of the officers to request additional security to the hallway and activated the judicial building’s alarm.

Compton was one of two registered sex offenders accused of molesting Carden’s daughter. After killing Compton and Braman, Carden took Braman’s car and went in search of the other man accused of molesting his daughter, Ernest Black. He forced his way into a residence in Morenci, where other people were present.

Adrian police arrested Carden after a vehicle and foot pursuit. Officers discovered the murders while conducting a welfare check at Compton and Braman’s residence.

Black, 55, was convicted by a Lenawee County Circuit Court jury in 2022 of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of accosting children for immoral purposes. He is serving a life prison sentence.

Carden’s attorney, Jim Daly, said his client already had a hatred of people who abused children before his ex-wife allowed their daughter to be molested and that he knew what he did was wrong.

Daly argued for Olsaver to set the minimum sentence below the minimum recommended by the state’s sentencing guidelines — 30 years and five months — due to Carden’s cooperation on other cases and because it appears he has been targeted by gang members who are looking to kill him in prison.

Carden told Olsaver he has six children and asked him to give him an opportunity to be a father or grandfather.

He said a counselor in prison told him about his daughter being molested, and he thought every day after that about what he would do when he got out of prison.

“It festered and grew and boiled over,” Carden said. “…There is a flip side to that coin. I wanted anybody and everybody involved for harming my daughter to pay, but I didn’t take into consideration the innocent people that I would be hurting with my actions, and I’m sorry for that. I thought I was being a father.”

Lenawee County Prosecutor Jackie Wyse and Hartung said they struggled with how to punish Carden for killing two men while allowing for the assistance he’s provided in prosecuting other cases.

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“I struggle so much with Chris and what he did and why we’re here today,” Wyse said. “I’ve never seen a more planned out, premeditated killing.”

“Good lord, he filmed it,” Hartung said.

Compton’s case could have been resolved the same way Black’s was through his daughter’s heroism, Hartung said.

“I need Mr. Carden to understand, perhaps he never will, that his daughter testified in this courtroom and put Ernie Black away,” Hartung said. “And this judge sentenced Ernie Black to life in prison without a chance for parole. He will never get out of prison — ever — because of what your daughter testified to and for what (former assistant prosecutor Angie) Border and others in our office did. The same thing would have happened to the other individual because she is a hero. She is a survivor.”

— Contact reporter David Panian at dpanian@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @lenaweepanian.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Man sentenced to prison in 2021 double murder in Adrian