Friend testifies booty call turned violent in Royal Oak woman’s stabbing [Detroit Free Press]

Dec. 02--A man accused of killing a Royal Oak woman in her apartment in September told a friend he acted in self-defense after she attacked him during a late-night sexual rendezvous, the friend testified in court today.

The friend testified in 44th District Court in Royal Oak that he recorded Christopher Hearn, 23, confessing to stabbing Ranae Chupick, 41, a couple of days after her nude, bludgeoned body was found on the floor of her Royal Oak apartment Sept. 19.

"Basically, (he was) indicating it was a booty call -- a no-strings-attached sexual encounter," testified Kevin Kaminske, who owns the Clinton Township apartment where Hearn, a longtime friend, had been staying for about a month. "She got mad at him -- I don't know if he said what she was mad about. He said she had swung a wine bottle and missed, and then she got a knife. And he said he blacked out and did not know what happened."

Hearn, dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit with his hands cuffed together, sat listening intently to the testimony today.

It was enough for Judge Terrence Brennen to send Hearn's case to Oakland County Circuit Court, where he'll be tried on a charge of open murder. Brennen ordered that Hearn stay in the Oakland County Jail without bond, where he's been since his arrest on Sept. 21.

Another roommate, Derek Brown, testified that he dropped Hearn off at Chupick's apartment late on Sept. 18. He said that Chupick had sent 15 to 20 provocative text messages to Hearn while the two men were out for the night at a Pontiac bar.

When he picked Hearn up the next morning at 7:30 a.m., Brown testified, Hearn was limping and said Chupik attacked him and pushed him down the stairs, injuring his wrist and knee.

Brown said Hearn initially rebuffed suggestions to go to the hospital because he didn't have medical insurance. But Brown, a member of the National Guard, said he convinced Hearn to see a National Guard medic, who directed them a Macomb County hospital for treatment.

Kaminske testified that Hearn spent a moody, quiet couple of days mainly in his room in the apartment.

Kaminske said he was shocked Sept. 21, after asking Hearn a couple of times what was wrong, when Hearn confessed to killing Chupick. Kaminske said he left the apartment and went for a walk, calling Crime Stoppers while he was out. He said he then returned to record Hearn with his cell phone, which he set on a dresser in "record" mode.

"He said, 'I was real careful and I wiped down the knife'...(and) smashed the cell phone and threw it in a Dumpster down the street," Kaminske testified. Hearn also told him he was contemplating stealing a gun from Kaminske's safe and killing himself. Police, apparently tipped off by CrimeStoppers, showed up at Kaminske's apartment later that night and arrested Hearn.

A person can be found not guilty of criminal charges if a jury is convinced that they acted in self-defense. Hearn could face up to life in prison if convicted of murder.

His next hearing could be as soon as Dec. 15, for his initial appearance in front of Judge Nancy Grant in Oakland County Circuit Court.

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