The trial of Robert Jensen Schwander for the brutal murder of Carly Lewis in June 2011 was not about whether or not Schwander killed Lewis — he confessed to killing her early in the investigation. Rather — as Patrick Sullivan writes in this week's Northern Express, sister publication of The Ticker — the trial was supposed to determine what kind of killing had occurred.

In the 2012 trial, Schwander’s attorney, Craig Elhart, would argue that Schwander acted in self-defense, that he was provoked, and that the slaying was, at most, a case of manslaughter. Prosecutors read the facts quite differently: Schwander, Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg would argue, lured Lewis to an abandoned building in Traverse City with the promise of marijuana and then stabbed the 16-year-old to death in cold blood, perhaps out of rage that Lewis’ family, who had recently taken in the homeless youth, had turned him back out onto the street.

The trial never really settled that question, however. The jury returned what was perhaps a compromise verdict of second-degree murder — less than what prosecutors sought, more than the defense argued was warranted. In the years since that verdict, the state’s criminal justice system has been unable to determine what punishment fits Schwander’s crime. So far, judges in Traverse City have tried repeatedly to sentence Schwander to at least 40 years in prison, nearly twice the time state guidelines recommend. Judges in Lansing have repeatedly struck down those sentences and called for fewer years or a better explanation of why Schwander deserves such a stiff punishment.

Next week, nearly nine years after Lewis’s death and after repeated Michigan Court of Appeals decisions that struck down previous sentences, Schwander is scheduled to be sentenced for the fourth time. This time around, a third judge will have to either sentence Schwander to a prison term within the guidelines, which would cap Schwander’s minimum sentence at 22.5 years or come up with a rationale that can satisfy the higher court that a tougher sentence is warranted.

Elhart said he hopes that when his client is resentenced, he receives a sentence within the guidelines. He said previous judges attempted to undo the work of the jury with the punishment they attempted to hand down. “What I think has happened is, they took the decision of the jury out of the mix,” he said. “The jury clearly decided he was guilty of second-degree murder.”

Read more about the details of the case and what could happen next in Schwander's sentencing in this week's Northern Express, available to read online and on newsstands at nearly 700 spots in 14 counties across northern Michigan.