After five years of various distractions, delays, and disruptions, a trial for a murder case that took place in Kalamazoo in 2019 has begun this week. However, the defendant in the case, Anthony Osioni Ozomaro, aged 37, is not present in court. He is currently sequestered in a different location at the Pratt Justice Center as a jury started to hear testimonies on Wednesday, April 24. Ozomaro is charged with the murder of his on-again, off-again girlfriend named Nikkole Riojas, which occurred on March 8, 2019. Ozomaro, who is currently serving a 10 to 14-year sentence in federal prison on a drug charge, is facing one count of open murder and one charge of felony firearms related to the death of Riojas, who was 35 years old at the time of her death.
Following multiple instances where Ozomaro refused to leave his cell and come to court, Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge Kenneth Barnard ordered deputies to transport the defendant to a recent hearing “by any means, force, or appropriate measures necessary.” As a result, Ozomaro appeared at a motion hearing on March 6, bound in chains and in a wheelchair that deputies used to move him. At the hearing, the defendant told Judge Barnard, “You will always have to force me to be in here. I will never walk in here on my own accord.”
On Tuesday, April 23, Ozomaro, who had previously informed the judge that he would only respond when addressed as “the Honorable Judge Anthony Osioni Ozomaro, the absolute supreme power source sun and earth,” appeared in court once more before opening arguments. Again, he was pushed in on a wheelchair. This time, however, Ozomaro was without pants.
Ozomaro refused to wear pants to court, so he was wheeled in “wearing underpants and wrapped in a sheet,” as confirmed by Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Mary Ann Berdan. She also mentioned that the jury never saw the defendant, as he was removed from the courtroom before opening arguments on Tuesday afternoon.
As testimony commenced on Wednesday morning, Ozomaro’s defense attorney, Scott Graham, of Kalamazoo Defender, stated that his client was following the court proceedings on a tablet. Graham informed Judge Barnard, “I talked with him specifically about whether he wished to come up to the courtroom today, and he said ‘no.’ He understands his right to be here and has chosen not to be here.”
The jury, consisting of 13 women and one man, along with two alternates, heard testimonies from six witnesses on Wednesday morning. The first witness was Jaime Washington, a friend of Riojas for eight years. Washington informed the jury that she spent the night of March 7 into March 8, 2019, sleeping in a car parked in the victim’s driveway. Homeless at the time, she stated that Riojas allowed her and her boyfriend to stay in the driveway of Riojas’ home on Charles Street. The couple had been staying inside the house, but Ozomaro, who was the father of two of Riojas’ children, had instructed Riojas to ask them to leave while he was staying there in the weeks leading up to her death.
Washington testified that she had fallen asleep in the vehicle around 9 p.m. on March 7 and awoke at around 1 a.m. on March 8, at which point she began watching Netflix on her phone. She stated that around five minutes after waking up, she saw Ozomaro, who was not staying at the home at the time, walk to the front of the house and look in a window, which she found odd. Washington then observed Ozomaro walking to the back of the home, at which point the sensor light came on. She saw the light go out and assumed Riojas had let him in.
The witness stated that she went back to sleep within an hour and did not hear any arguing, raised voices, or gunshots before falling back asleep. She woke up in the morning to take her boyfriend to a doctor’s appointment. When she returned, she saw Riojas’ daughter in the driveway barefoot. The daughter informed her that her mother was not waking up.
Washington entered the home and found Riojas lying on her back with blood around her head. When asked if she touched Riojas, Washington replied through tears, “I touched her hair and said ‘I’m sorry, Nikkole.’” She then called 911.
Police arrived at the home at 11:52 a.m. on March 8, two minutes after receiving the call. Kalamazoo Public Safety Officer Timothy Loso testified that Riojas was already deceased when police arrived. Loso, who stated that the victim’s death initially appeared to be a suicide but was later ruled out, was among five officers who testified on Wednesday morning. Another officer, Kalamazoo Public Safety Officer Zachary Britten, stated that he found a 9 mm shell casing near the top of a trash can. Britten also located four unspent .38 Special cartridges lower in the trash.
According to testimony given at Ozomaro’s preliminary hearing in 2021, police later found three more matching 9 mm shell casings at Ozomaro’s apartment. The Michigan State Police later tested all the casings and found that they matched a gun owned by Riojas.
During their search of Ozomaro’s home, the police also discovered 251 grams of methamphetamine, which led to the federal drug charges. Ozomaro was apprehended by the police after a short chase about an hour after they responded to the Charles Street home where Riojas was found dead. He crashed his vehicle while attempting to evade the police and fled into an abandoned apartment building on North Street, where he was apprehended. He informed the police that he was a “sovereign citizen” and did not recognize governmental authority, a position he has maintained throughout his five-year court process.
Ozomaro has been in custody since his arrest in March 2019, initially held at the Kalamazoo County Jail while awaiting the start of this trial and another one. He also faces two fleeing and eluding charges, driving without a license on his person, and possession of ammunition by a felon, all stemming from his arrest shortly after the police discovered Riojas’ body.
