A 26-year-old man has been arrested and is expected to be charged with murder and felony firearm in the death of former Michigan football player Richard Jekel, the Grand Rapids Police Department told WOOD-TV in Michigan. Grand Rapids police found Jekel dead in the backseat of a car driven by 26-year-old Devon Matthews while they arrested him on stalking charges.
Matthews was out on bond for a prior aggravated stalking charge when he received another aggravated stalking complaint earlier this month. Matthews was on “a GPS tether” per the report when a second aggravated stalking complaint was made in Grand Rapids.
Police found Matthews outside the stalking victims home armed with a gun and that’s when they found Jekel in the backseat with a gunshot wound.
Police say the gun that Matthews “dumped” before his arrest matched the bullet wound found in Jekel. Jekel’s family say the car Matthews was driving belonged to Jekel, who was known to give out free rides around town.
The family fears his generosity led to his demise.
“There is no motive,” his daughter Melissa Jekel said on Wednesday, per WoodTV.com. “They haven’t been able to make any connection between my dad and Devon at all… It was just a random wrong place, wrong time. He was trying to get to his stalking victim.”
“He killed my dad for no reason. He definitely would’ve killed [his stalking victim] because she was the focus, and then their poor child would grow up without either parent. So I mean it sucks, but I just don’t want to be bitter and let it consume me.”
Jekel played football for the Wolverines in the 1970s, suiting up with legendary college football coach Les Miles and making a trip to the Rose Bowl.
