LANSING — The man suspected of killing his cellmate at an Ionia prison Aug. 19 was locked up for shooting his two-year-old son in the face and the president of the Michigan corrections officers' union says he should not have been sharing a cell with anyone.
Michael Christopher Glance, 39, was sharing a cell with Kevin Joseph Kelly, 36, who was found unresponsive at the prison amid signs of trauma and soon pronounced dead, Michigan State Police Lt. Pat Agema confirmed Aug. 21. Though an investigation continues, Glance is the suspect in the homicide, he said.
The killing of Kelly was the second homicide since March in a Bellamy Creek unit that houses Level 4 inmates — the second-highest security level in the Michigan prison system. In each case,
the inmate's cellmate is suspected in the killing.
Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization, told the Detroit Free Press that Glance should have been classified as Level 5, which is the highest security level. All Level 5 prisoners are housed in single-person cells. Osborn said Glance's placement in a Level 4 unit is part of a growing and alarming trend in which violent and dangerous prisoners are housed in lower security levels, due to a shortage of beds and corrections officers. Osborn said the practice endangers both officers and other inmates.
Glance was sentenced to 35 to 55 years in prison in Jackson County Circuit Court in 2021 for a 2019 incident in which he intentionally fired a shotgun at his two-year-old son, causing "devastating injuries," during a dispute with the boy's mother and also tried unsuccessfully to shoot the mother, according to a case summary included with a Michigan Court of Appeals opinion. Minutes before using the shotgun, Glance had held a pistol to the toddler's head and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed, records show.
Though the crime is heinous enough, Osborn said it's what Glance has done since being sent to prison that should have kept him alone in a Level 5 cell.
"Due to his recent assaults on other prisoners he showed a pattern of danger to others," Osborn said.
The union says Glance had two prior charges of assaulting other cellmates in February and July of 2026.
Jenni Riehle, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, said in an Aug. 21 email that both Kelly and his cellmate were properly classified as Level 4. "MDOC will not be providing further details on the incident at this time due to the ongoing investigation," she said.
Despite aggressive recruitment efforts, the MDOC is facing a chronic shortage of corrections officers, resulting in understaffing and officers at many prisons facing mandated overtime that has them frequently working consecutive shifts.
The union said in an Aug. 21 statement that at Bellamy Creek since July 23, in addition to the homicide, "there have been eight incidents involving prisoners assaulting corrections officers, eight incidents involving prisoners assaulting other prisoners, 11 incidents involving prisoner fights, (and) five incidents involving prisoners possessing weapons."
Glance has been moved to a Level 5 cell at Ionia Correctional Facility, records show.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Suspect in Ionia prison death should have been housed solo, union says
