BAY CITY, MI — A judge has ruled jurors can hear recordings of a Bay City man’s conversations with police detectives, in which he allegedly confessed to strangling and dismembering a local school custodian.
Robert D. Tweedly Jr. on Wednesday, Dec. 3, appeared before Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran for a Walker hearing. Walker hearings are held before trial so a judge can determine if a defendant voluntarily and knowingly gave statements to police.
Tweedly, 41, is charged with open murder and disinterment or mutilation of a dead body in the death of 41-year-old Justie T. Stilwell.
Defense attorney James F. Piazza sought to suppress Tweedly’s statements during a police interrogation, arguing detectives violated his client’s Miranda rights by continuing to question him after he asked for a lawyer. Bay County Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Kula disagreed, saying Tweedly waffled on whether he wanted an attorney but proceeded to implicate himself in Stilwell’s homicide.
To support his position, Kula called the two officers who interviewed Tweedly and played clips of their recorded conversations.
Bay City Public Safety Detective Sgt. Ben Krzyminski testified police executed a search warrant on Tweedly’s house at 110 Elm St. in the early morning of Sept. 25, 2024. Tweedly and two roommates were present.
“When I entered, he asked who was in charge,” Krzyminski said. “I told him I was and that a detective would be speaking with him. He … said he wanted to talk to me and wanted to confess.”
Officers detained Tweedly and took him to the Bay County Law Enforcement Center, where Krzyminski and Sgt. Nate Kamp interviewed him. Audio and video recordings were made of the interview, Krzyminski said.
Tweedly declined detectives’ offer of food but accepted a bottled water and cigarettes from them. At one point, the detectives took Tweedly outside so he could smoke but continued to record audio of their small-talk, Krzyminski said.
Kula played the 10-minute recording in court. The parties’ voices were difficult to make out under substantial ambient noise, but Tweedly could be heard asking about potentially having a lawyer.
The detectives brought Tweedly back into an interview room and advised him it was his right and decision to have an attorney, Krzyminski said.
“He did mention he wanted to tell us everything,” Krzyminski testified. “At that point, I believed he was waiving his right to an attorney to speak with us about the incident.”
Kula asked Krzyminski if Tweedly led police to portions of Stilwell’s body after their initial conversation. Piazza objected, saying this was outside the scope of Wednesday’s hearing. Kula countered if Tweedly led police to Stilwell’s body, it showed a willingness on his part to cooperate with investigators.
Sheeran agreed it was relevant in showing Tweedly’s state of mind.
Krzyminski said Tweedly did lead police to Stilwell’s body and wrote an apology letter to Stilwell’s family. During a second interview on the same day, Tweedly was again advised of his Miranda rights and waived them before making more statements about Stilwell’s death, Krzyminski said.
Judge Sheeran listened to the recording in his chambers. On returning to his courtroom, he said that while many portions of the recording were extremely muffled and difficult to understand, he could make out Tweedly asking the detectives if he could have a lawyer present and “the faster we get this done, the better.”
Sgt. Kamp testified after Krzyminski stepped down and gave a similar account.
“While we were outside (smoking), he said he wanted to get this over quickly and he didn’t want to waste time,” Kamp said.
Kula played about four minutes of video footage from the three-hour interview. It began with a sweatshirt-clad Tweedly sitting in the corner of a cinderblock room, holding his bald head in his hands. Kamp and Krzyminski enter the room and he sits upright, his arms folded across his chest.
“I just want a lawyer here to keep me from saying anything,” he says. Then, after a brief pause in which neither detective says anything, Tweedly continues, “Just start asking questions and I’ll answer ’em for you.”
Kamp asks Tweedly if he has a specific attorney in mind or wants a public defender. Tweedly gives an ambiguous response, and Kamp proceeds to read and explain to him his Miranda rights. He explains that Tweedly can end the questioning and ask for an attorney at any point.
Tweedly tells the detectives that “for now” he’s willing to speak to them without a lawyer.
From the witness stand, Kamp testified Tweedly signed two Miranda waivers the day of the interviews.
“It was clear to me he wanted to proceed without an attorney,” Kamp said.
After Kamp finished testifying, Piazza argued Tweedly only kept speaking to the detectives because they asked him follow-up questions about what attorney he wanted. They should have stopped conversing with him and left the room immediately when he mentioned wanting a lawyer, Piazza said.
Kula balked at this, questioning how police could have procured Tweedly an attorney without asking him subsequent questions. Tweedly reinitiated his own interrogation by telling detectives to start asking questions, Kula said.
“He was trying to talk to police so quickly they had to slow him down, read him his Miranda rights, and do this by the book,” Kula said.
Sheeran ruled in the prosecution’s favor. Tweedly did not tell the detectives he wanted an attorney while having his cigarette, but asked about having one present, Sheeran said. Once back inside the interview room, Tweedly said he wanted a lawyer, “but in the same breath said he wanted to continue,” the judge said.
The detectives took precautions by reading Tweedly his Miranda rights and asking him if he comprehended them. After that, the suspect did not unequivocally ask for an attorney, the judge said.
Case background
Stilwell was a custodian at T.L. Handy Middle School. His family reported him missing on Sept. 18, 2024, after he did not show up for work for two days.
Later that evening, a teenage girl walking near the Edward M. Golson Boat Launch by Independence Bridge spotted human limbs in the water. The remains were identified as Stilwell’s.
Investigators soon developed Tweedly as a suspect and determined he and Stilwell knew each other through the dating app Grindr. Police on the morning of Sept. 25, 2024, served a warrant on Tweedly’s house at 110 Elm St. and arrested him.
According to police reports MLive obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, Tweedly told detectives Stilwell had walked to his house the night of Sept. 13 “to talk and help me through communication.” Tweedly said he was intoxicated and high on methamphetamine at the time, reports state.
As Stilwell went to leave, Tweedly pushed him down his basement stairs then strangled him, he told police, according to their reports. He stole about $40 in cash from Stilwell’s wallet and the keys to his 2020 Jeep Trail Hawk, then walked to Stilwell’s house at 1108 Litchfield St., he told police.
Tweedly used Stilwell’s Jeep to make two trips to the Bangor Township Walmart, first buying rope before returning hours later to buy a 28-inch axe and reusable lawn bags, he told detectives, according to their reports.
Tweedly allegedly confessed to dismembering Stilwell’s body with the axe in his basement, then making multiple trips in the Jeep to discard his body parts in the Saginaw River and at the nearby Golson Nature Area behind GM Powertrain, 1001 Woodside Ave., police reports state. As dawn was breaking, he abandoned Stilwell’s Jeep at DeFoe Park, then walked home.
Stilwell’s siblings found the Jeep at DeFoe the morning of Sept. 19, 2024, and notified police. An inspection of the Jeep revealed blood and tissue in the cargo compartment, police reports state.
During the preliminary examination held in August 2025, Detective Krzyminski testified Tweedly told him he wanted to “confess to everything” when he arrived at his home.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Patrick Cho testified he performed an autopsy on Stilwell’s remains. He concluded the cause of death was strangulation and blunt force injury of the head.
Stilwell was survived by his mother, two brothers, a sister, numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, and his cat, Mango.
In his Instagram profile, Stilwell described himself as “Just a guy who lives in a town by the bay in Michigan. Who loves taking pictures. Drawing and painting whatever comes to mind.” The account features several of Stilwell’s original works of art.
“Justie was a beloved custodian at T.L. Handy High School, where his gentle ways endeared him to both students and staff,” his obituary states. “Justie had a knack for photography and also enjoyed genealogy. Justie’s artistic side made him a natural when it came to scrapbooking and other creative pursuits. Justie enjoyed the peace of nature and enjoyed time spent outdoors, especially up north in Mackinaw City. He will be deeply missed, yet lovingly remembered for years to come.”
