Stephen Lee Freeman is a Michigan man convicted in September 2025 of first-degree murder in the October 2022 killing of 62-year-old Gabriele Seitz, a Roseville woman whose body was found in the bed of her own pickup truck after Freeman crashed it into a semi and fled. A Macomb County Circuit Court jury found him guilty on all six counts he faced. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 10, 2026, in a hearing that will decide whether he receives life without parole or a lengthy term of years.1Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. Young Lexington Man Convicted on All Counts Including First-Degree
What Happened to Gabriele Seitz
On the evening of October 26, 2022, surveillance video captured a person prosecutors identified as Freeman carrying a blue duffle bag toward an apartment on Utica Road in Roseville. He jumped a fence and entered the rear of the building, breaking into Seitz’s home through a bathroom window while she was still at work.1Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. Young Lexington Man Convicted on All Counts Including First-Degree Seitz, a server at a National Coney Island restaurant, rode her bicycle home from her shift and arrived around 7:10 p.m.2Macomb Daily. DNA, Video, Fingerprint Evidence Presented in Roseville Murder Trial
Prosecutors said Freeman sexually assaulted Seitz and strangled her with a shoelace from her own sneaker. The medical examiner documented 23 separate injuries on her body, including a broken sternum, strangulation marks, and head trauma that contributed to her death.3The Oakland Press. Macomb Prosecutors Seek First-Degree Murder in Roseville Slaying Around 1:19 a.m. on October 27, surveillance video showed someone dragging a heavy object and placing it into the bed of Seitz’s blue Ford Ranger. Freeman wrapped the body in blue bedsheets and drove the truck away.2Macomb Daily. DNA, Video, Fingerprint Evidence Presented in Roseville Murder Trial
How Freeman Was Caught
Just after noon on October 27, Freeman was driving the stolen truck near Hayes and Common roads on the Roseville–Warren border when the pickup clipped a semi while turning and spun out. He ran. Roseville officers who went to the vehicle found Seitz’s body in the truck bed.4Macomb Daily. Woman’s Body Found in Bed of Truck That Had Crash in Roseville5ClickOnDetroit. Police Search for Man Involved in Roseville Crash After Body Found in Bed of His Truck
In a parking lot nearby, investigators recovered the blue duffle bag. Inside was a plastic bag labeled “Freeman” containing a hospital wristband with his name on it, bus tickets, and addresses for halfway houses.2Macomb Daily. DNA, Video, Fingerprint Evidence Presented in Roseville Murder Trial Officers arrested Freeman on October 30, 2022, in Waterford Township, where he had relatives. He was asleep in the back of a car.6C&G Newspapers. Suspect Arrested, Arraigned After Body Found in Truck After Crash
Who Freeman Was
Freeman was 19 at the time of the killing. He grew up in Lexington, a small community in Sanilac County, and had also lived in Waterford Township in Oakland County. He was transient and homeless when Seitz was killed, and had previously sought drug treatment in Oakland County.7Macomb Daily. Suspect Found With Body in Truck in Roseville Charged With Murder Prosecutors offered no evidence that he and Seitz knew each other, and her family said she did not know him.8WXYZ Detroit. Transient Teen Charged in Case of Roseville Woman Found Dead in Bed of Pickup Truck
Seitz lived alone in her Utica Road apartment. Her eldest son, Justin Omans, described her as “the sweetest person alive that everyone loved” and said she “liked to dance, sing, everything.”9WXYZ Detroit. “Sweetest Person Alive” — Son Remembers Mom Whose Body Was Found in Pickup Truck
The Trial
Freeman’s jury trial began September 4, 2025, before Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Julie Gatti and ran roughly two weeks. Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Darrien Fortier and Kumar Palepu led the prosecution.1Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. Young Lexington Man Convicted on All Counts Including First-Degree
The state’s case was built on forensics placing Freeman in the apartment, on the victim, and in the truck. Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Jason Sinke testified that Freeman’s fingerprints were lifted from the bathroom window used for entry, the interior wall next to it, the Ford Ranger’s door, and a garbage bag inside the home. Detective Sgt. Eric Saddler testified that Freeman’s DNA was on Seitz’s body, on the shoelace used to strangle her, on the truck’s steering wheel, and on a shoe found inside the apartment.2Macomb Daily. DNA, Video, Fingerprint Evidence Presented in Roseville Murder Trial Prosecutors also pointed to pornography searches made on Seitz’s phone at 7:52 p.m. the night of the murder, after she had arrived home, arguing she was being held captive at that moment.3The Oakland Press. Macomb Prosecutors Seek First-Degree Murder in Roseville Slaying
Defense attorney Gary Kennedy, an assistant Macomb County public defender, did not dispute that Freeman had been inside the apartment. He argued the two may have had a “hidden relationship” and that the encounter was consensual sexual activity that went fatally wrong, pointing to an unidentified Google Voice text message sent to Seitz and suggesting Freeman might have previously done handyman work on the bathroom window. The goal was to knock the charge down to second-degree murder by undercutting premeditation, and to defeat the home-invasion predicate for felony murder by placing Freeman in the apartment as an invited guest. Prosecutors said there was no electronic communication between the two, and Seitz’s family and friends said she did not know him. Judge Gatti refused to let the jury consider manslaughter as a lesser option.10Macomb Daily. Macomb Prosecutors Seek First-Degree Murder in Roseville Slaying
The Verdict
On September 16, 2025, after more than seven hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Freeman, then 22, on all six counts: first-degree premeditated murder, felony murder, first-degree home invasion, second-degree criminal sexual conduct, concealing the death of an individual, and receiving and concealing a stolen motor vehicle. The two murder counts each carry life without parole; home invasion carries up to 20 years, criminal sexual conduct up to 15, and the concealment and stolen-vehicle counts up to 5 each.1Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. Young Lexington Man Convicted on All Counts Including First-Degree
Assaults in the Macomb County Jail
While awaiting trial, Freeman picked up additional charges inside the Macomb County Jail. He was accused of assaulting corrections officers on December 7, 2022, January 30, 2023, and February 2, 2024, and was held without bond in the jail’s most secure section.11The Oakland Press. Accused Murderer of Roseville Woman Charged With Third Jail Assault By 2026, the matters had grown into four cases covering six assaultive felonies. On April 13, 2026, Freeman pleaded no contest to all of them.12Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. Man Previously Convicted of First-Degree Murder Pleads No Contest Prosecutor Peter J. Lucido called the convictions significant but said any sentence on the assaults would have “limited practical impact” alongside the murder penalty.13CBS News Detroit. Convicted Murderer Pleads No Contest to Assault in Michigan Jail
Why Sentencing Isn’t Automatic Life
In most Michigan cases, a first-degree murder conviction triggers a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Freeman’s sentence is not automatic because he was 19 at the time of the killing. In 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court held in People v. Parks that mandatory life without parole for 18-year-olds violates the state constitution’s ban on cruel or unusual punishment, because it ignores the mitigating characteristics of youth and late-adolescent brain development.14Michigan Courts. People v. Parks, Docket No. 162086 The court later extended that protection to 19- and 20-year-olds in People v. Taylor and People v. Czarnecki.15The Sentencing Project. Michigan Supreme Court Finds Mandatory Life Without Parole Sentences for People Under 21 Unconstitutional
Because of those rulings, Judge Gatti must hold a Miller hearing, an individualized proceeding that weighs youth-related factors, before deciding between life without parole and a term of years. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office has said a term of years, if imposed, would likely fall between 40 and 60 years.12Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office. Man Previously Convicted of First-Degree Murder Pleads No Contest The Miller hearing and sentencing on both the murder convictions and the jail-assault pleas are set for July 10, 2026, in Macomb County Circuit Court.16C&G Newspapers. Man Convicted of Murder Pleads No Contest in Assault Cases