LAPEER, Mich. (Court TV) — A man in Michigan was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading no contest to murdering a woman found dead in a relative’s basement.
Chadwick Mobley listens to victim impact statements at his sentencing hearing. (Court TV)
Chadwick Mobley was charged with first-degree murder, felony murder and felony firearm in the death of Andrea Eilber, 20, who was killed on Nov. 14, 2011. Mobley wasn’t named as a potential suspect in the case until 10 years later, when evidence was retested and DNA linked him to the scene.
Investigators say Eilber was killed by a single gunshot wound to her head. Officers who found her body two days later said that she was “strangely positioned on a chair in the laundry room of the basement” and that she was bound to the chair, likely with zip ties, when she was shot.
Eilber’s boyfriend at the time of her death, Kenneth Carl Grondin III, was convicted of her murder but maintained his innocence. His conviction was overturned in 2018 after an appellate court found an issue with the verdict form used at his trial. Grondin initially told police that after he had found his girlfriend’s body, he moved it and removed items from her home so her family wouldn’t think she had taken her own life.
Mobley was living in Utah when he was charged with murder in 2023 and escaped from custody in Montana while authorities were transporting him to Michigan to face charges.
Investigators have not said what, if any, connection exists between Mobley and Grondin. While Mobley has remained in custody, Grondin was released from jail pending his retrial, The County Press reported. Although Grondin’s attorney has reportedly asked the Michigan D.A. to drop the charges against his client now that Mobley took ownership of the crime, the D.A. released a statement saying that “dates have yet to be set by the Court for the upcoming trial of a co-defendant previously charged for the same murder.”
