HILLSDALE, MI (WTVB) – A Jerome man who was charged in connection with the shooting death of a woman on August 12, 2023 entered a no contest plea to manslaughter on Monday in Hillsdale County Circuit Court.
On line court records indicate 28-year-old Jonathan Navarre Ressler has agreed to pay restitution and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 1.
Ressler is being held in the Hillsdale County Jail without bond. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed charges of Open Murder and Felony Firearms.
The shooting happened in the area of the 11000 block of Opel Drive in Somerset Township.
Michigan State Police troopers reported they found 26-year-old Tasha Cole, who was the daughter of a neighbor, on the ground with a single gunshot wound. Cole was transported to the hospital, where she was pronounced deceased.
The Hillsdale Daily News reports the plea deal allowed for Judge Sara Lisznyai to read into the record excerpts from the State Police investigation into the shooting.
The report indicated Cole got into the residence while Ressler and his wife were shopping. When he returned, Ressler got a firearm out of his bedroom and hid it as he tried to escort Cole off of the property.
The report went on to say Cole yelled and threatened Ressler before the shooting took place.
This is absolutely ridiculous that make a deal Neal Brady made a deal with a murderer if it was his daughter or sister or mother I bet it wouldn’t have made a deal then. He doesn’t need to be the prosecutor he sucks at his job.