Gregory Vincente Green stood before a Wayne County court as a confessed killer twice in twenty-five years. In July 1991 he killed his first wife, Tonya Green, in Detroit. She was pregnant with his child. He called the police himself, pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and served sixteen years before the Michigan Parole Board released him in 2008, on his fifth request. Two years later he married again. His second wife was the daughter of a pastor who had written to the parole board on his behalf.
In the early hours of September 21, 2016, in Dearborn Heights, a suburb on the western edge of Detroit, Green killed the four children of that household: his daughters, Koi Green, 5, and Kaleigh Green, 4, and his stepchildren, Chadney Allen, 19, and Kara Allen, 17. His wife survived. Once again he called the police himself. On February 15, 2017, he pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree murder, one count of torture and further offenses, and on March 1, 2017, a judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court sentenced him to 47 to 102 years. He will not be eligible for parole until he is 97.
Green was 49 in September 2016 and 50 by February 2017, which places his birth in 1966 or early 1967.
By the summer of 1991 he was in his mid-twenties and married to Latonya Green, known as Tonya. She was about 30 weeks pregnant with his child. On July 14, 1991, Green telephoned the police in Detroit and told them what he had done. He was arrested, and he admitted the killing. Tonya Green was dead, and so was the child she was carrying.
Green was charged in Wayne County with murder. While the case moved toward trial he tried to raise an insanity defense. It did not succeed. In March 1992 he was convicted of second-degree murder on a plea of no contest, a plea by which a defendant accepts conviction without admitting the facts in open court. The court sentenced him to 15 to 20 years.
No separate conviction is known for the death of the child Tonya Green was carrying.
Green served his sentence in Michigan's state prison system. His conduct record there was short. He had one misconduct finding, in 2002, after a dispute with another prisoner over a television.
His first four requests for parole were refused. The Michigan Department of Corrections later set out the reasons in a statement: he "had not shown remorse for his crime, had not gained adequate insight and had a lack of empathy." After the fourth refusal, the department said, "he completed several cognitive-based programs." On his fifth request the board granted parole. Only two members of the board approved his release. He left custody in 2008, after sixteen years, and was discharged from parole in April 2010.
Among the papers in Green's parole file were letters from a Detroit-area pastor, a man who had long made ministry to prisoners part of his work. The pastor had visited Green in prison. In August 2005 he wrote that the two men "were friends before his mishap and he was incarcerated," and that Green had "paid for his unfortunate lack of self control" and was sorry. "This will not restore the lives that were taken," he added. In a second letter, in 2006, he wrote that he had seen "a great deal of growth" in Green and that his understanding had "matured quite a bit." He described Green as a helpful member of his church.
In 2010, two years after his release, Green married the pastor's daughter. She was a mother of two from her first marriage, a son, Chadney, and a daughter, Kara. Green became their stepfather. The couple went on to have two daughters of their own, Koi and Kaleigh.
The father of the two older children met Green only once. He said afterward that he had known nothing of Green's criminal past. His former wife said later that she learned the full facts of the 1991 killing only after September 2016.
The marriage was troubled within three years. In 2013 Green's wife made a report to police describing his conduct. She said he was "kicking things, threatening me," and that he was trying to force her to leave. In February 2013 she asked a court for a personal protection order. A judge denied the petition, finding the allegations insufficient. She filed for divorce, and the case was dismissed after neither side acted on it.
Looking back in 2023, she described a husband who was "often quiet and moody" and whose abuse took a particular form. "He never hit me," she said. "It was always verbal and mental torment." She left him for a time, she said, and returned when money ran short. Green resented the son and daughter from her first marriage.
In August 2016 she filed for divorce again, citing a "breakdown in the marriage relationship." Green had been served with the divorce papers a few weeks before September 21. Police in Dearborn Heights said that they had been called to the family's residence in the past for domestic violence and family trouble, though not in the three months before the killings, and that she had filed no complaint in that period.
Early on the morning of Wednesday, September 21, 2016, Green called 911 and said he had killed his family. Dearborn Heights police took him into custody without incident when they arrived. All four children were dead. Their mother survived.
Captain Michael Petri of the Dearborn Heights Police Department told reporters that morning that the case "stemmed from a domestic violence type situation." He added that the suspected offender was in custody "so there is no concern for the neighbors." The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office received a warrant request the same day. The Wayne County medical examiner ruled the deaths homicides.
Chadney Allen was 19, the eldest of the four. He was his mother's son from her first marriage and carried his father's name as Chadney Allen Jr. He was remembered for his love of anime and for the short films he made.
Kara Allen was 17, his younger sister.
Koi Green was 5.
Kaleigh Green was 4.
All four died in Dearborn Heights on September 21, 2016.
On Thursday, September 22, 2016, Green was arraigned in the 20th District Court in Dearborn Heights. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and with one count each of assault with intent to do great bodily harm, torture, unlawful imprisonment, felonious assault and two further offenses, one of them under section 750.227b of the Michigan Penal Code. He appeared without a lawyer. When the prosecution asked that he be held, he did not object. "I don't need bond," he told the court. "I don't think I deserve one." He was remanded to jail.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy described the case in stark terms. "The alleged evidence in this case will show an appalling level of domestic violence that was cataclysmic," she said. "A confluence of events led to the deaths of four beautiful children." "There is nothing that better illustrates the silence of violence than this case," she said, and she urged that domestic violence be pushed "back to the forefront." A probable cause conference was set for October 5 and a preliminary examination for October 12.
On October 5, 2016, Green returned to the district court. His wife attended, accompanied by supporters. Green now had counsel, Charles Longstreet II, who told the judge that he was looking into an insanity defense. "I thought it was appropriate to get the ball rolling so to speak in regards to establishing an insanity defense," Longstreet said, "but it doesn't mean there is going to be that defense." The court ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether Green was competent to stand trial and whether he had been competent to waive his Miranda rights. The preliminary examination was postponed. The evaluation was expected to take more than two months.
The same week, the pastor's letters became public. His family declined to discuss them. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said he was "deeply concerned" that only two members of the parole board had voted to release Green in 2008, and that his office was looking into it.
On Wednesday, February 15, 2017, Green appeared before Judge David D. Turfe of the 20th District Court. He was found competent to stand trial. He then pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of the four children, to one count of torture and one count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm for the attack on his wife, and to one count under section 750.227b. Asked by the court whether he had killed the children, he answered, "Yes."
The plea carried a sentence agreement. The prosecution would ask for a term of 45 to 100 years on the murder, torture and assault counts, with a further two years to be served first and consecutively under section 750.227b. The remaining charges, unlawful imprisonment, felonious assault and a further count, would be dismissed at sentencing. The prosecutor's office said the agreement had "the express approval" of Green's wife, and the father of Chadney and Kara Allen also approved it. Under its terms Green would be 97 before he could apply for parole.
"All I know is that he's remorseful," Longstreet said after the hearing. He said his client had wanted "to get it over with." The case was sent to the Third Circuit Court in Wayne County for sentencing.
Green was sentenced on Wednesday, March 1, 2017, in the Wayne County Circuit Court before Judge Dana Hathaway. His wife addressed him directly. She had wanted a sentence with no possibility of parole. She told him that nothing the law could do would be enough. "Not even torture and death would be justice," she said. "Your justice will come when you burn in hell for all eternity for murdering four innocent children."
Green sat without visible emotion while she spoke. When his turn came he said, "I do regret and I am sorry for what has happened." He also said his fate was "in God's hands. Only He can judge." He suggested that he had acted out of anger at his wife, saying he had wanted a "God-fearing helpmate" who would support him. Judge Hathaway said his tone was not conciliatory.
The judge said she accepted the plea agreement reluctantly. She imposed 45 to 100 years on the murder, torture and assault counts and the mandatory two years under section 750.227b, a combined term of 47 to 102 years. "Fathers are supposed to protect their children and husbands are supposed to protect their wives," she told him. She noted that he would be 97 before his first parole eligibility. "I'm convinced you'll be incarcerated for the remainder of your life," she said.
The killings in Dearborn Heights put the 2008 parole decision under public scrutiny. The Department of Corrections set out the record: four refusals for want of remorse, insight and empathy, then the completion of cognitive programs, then release. The attorney general's concern centered on the narrow vote that freed him. It is not known whether his office's review led to any finding or change.
The case also drew attention to how the system had handled his second wife's warnings. Barbara Niess-May, director of SafeHouse Center in Washtenaw County, said in October 2016 that domestic violence is "a situation that builds up over time" and that it "knows no socioeconomic status and it can happen to just about anybody." She said victims needed to know others would support them, that police must not grow callous about cases they see often, that victims needed safe places to go, and that the system had to hold abusers accountable.
The children's mother has since spoken publicly about the case, in interviews in 2022 and 2023. She said she had filed for divorce three times, the last about a month before the killings, and that she had not understood then that leaving is "the most dangerous time." She did not believe, she said, that he would kill the children.
"You never get used to it," she said in December 2022, "because you still always expect them to walk through the door." She volunteers with a women's shelter in the Detroit area and has written a book about her life. She credits First Step, a domestic violence agency in the Detroit area, with helping her recover, and says that in 2019 she decided to live. "My purpose is to help other women and I have to do that," she said. Of how she gets through each day, she said: "Because I have to keep going on for my children and that's what they would have wanted." She has called herself "an advocate" and "a champion for women."
No appeal of the 2017 convictions or sentence is known. In October 2023 Green was still serving his sentence in Michigan state custody. Under the terms the court imposed, he cannot be considered for parole until he reaches 97.
Michigan divides murder into two degrees. First-degree murder, the charge on which Green was arraigned in September 2016, carries a fixed sentence under section 750.316 of the Michigan Penal Code: "imprisonment for life without eligibility for parole." Second-degree murder, defined in section 750.317 as "all other kinds of murder," is punishable by imprisonment for life or for any term of years, at the discretion of the trial court. Green's plea in 2017 to second-degree murder replaced a charge that admits no parole with a term of years, 45 to 100, and the judge who imposed it told him she was convinced he would spend the rest of his life in custody.
Torture became a separate crime in Michigan under 2005 Public Act 335, effective March 1, 2006, as section 750.85. It covers a person who, with intent to cause cruel or extreme physical or mental pain and suffering, inflicts great bodily injury or severe mental pain or suffering on someone in the offender's custody or physical control. Custody or physical control means forcibly restricting or confining a person without consent or lawful authority. The penalty is imprisonment for life or any term of years. The offense did not exist when Green was first convicted.
Section 750.227b adds a fixed term to the sentence for certain felonies: two years on a first conviction, five on a second and ten on a third. The term is added to the sentence for the underlying felony, must be served "consecutively with and preceding" that sentence, cannot be suspended, and carries no parole or probation while it runs. That is why Green's sentence was expressed as 45 to 100 years plus two.
The motive was never tested at a trial. Green's own explanation at sentencing, anger at his wife and the wish for a "God-fearing helpmate," is his account and was not the subject of any finding by the court.
1966 or early 1967: Gregory Vincente Green is born; his exact date of birth is not known.
July 14, 1991: Green calls Detroit police and admits killing his wife, Tonya Green, who was pregnant.
March 1992: Convicted in Wayne County of second-degree murder on a no contest plea; sentenced to 15 to 20 years.
2002: His only prison misconduct finding.
2005 and 2006: A Detroit-area pastor writes to the parole board in support of his release.
2008: Paroled on his fifth request, after four refusals.
April 2010: Discharged from parole.
2010: Marries the pastor's daughter.
February 2013: His wife's petition for a personal protection order is denied; a divorce filing is later dismissed.
August 2016: His wife files for divorce again.
September 21, 2016: Chadney Allen, Kara Allen, Koi Green and Kaleigh Green die in Dearborn Heights; Green calls police and is taken into custody.
September 22, 2016: Arraigned in the 20th District Court on four counts of first-degree murder and other charges; held without bond.
October 5, 2016: Psychiatric evaluation ordered; the attorney general says he is looking into the 2008 parole.
February 15, 2017: Found competent; pleads guilty before Judge David D. Turfe to four counts of second-degree murder, torture and other counts.
March 1, 2017: Sentenced by Judge Dana Hathaway in Wayne County Circuit Court to 47 to 102 years.
December 2022 and October 2023: The children's mother speaks publicly about the case.
October 2023: Green is still serving his sentence in Michigan.