MARQUETTE, Mich, (WZMQ) – Julie Boxley is charged with first degree murder and first degree arson for a house fire in Ishpeming in March of 2023 which resulted in the death of her boyfriend Glenn Andrews.
At Friday’s preliminary hearing at Marquette’s District Court the prosecution brought evidence forward to try to have the case bound to rial at the Circuit Court and spent most of the hearing calling about a dozen witnesses the build their case.
Witness Jason Burg, of MSP’s Fire Investigation Unit, said he believes the fire wasn’t started by natural causes and had human involvement.
“Looking at fire patterns, and most of the damage is towards the front Silver St. side of the residence,” said Burg. “So basically at this point when I say human intervention unknown intent, there was some sort of human act involved with the fire, whether it was intentional or unintentional.”
The defense said even with the expert testimony, there is nothing proving Boxley set the fire, and that everything presented today is ‘circumstantial’ evidence.
“We don’t have evidence of that tonight at all,” said Deputy Chief Public Defender Jeffry Schroder. “Even with all these experts and their degrees and years of experience and all that.”
But the prosecution said the strongest evidence against Boxley is her own testimony to investigators.
“We have everything to indicate that this was intentionally set by Ms. Boxley based on her own statements,” said Prosecuting Attorney Jenna Nelson.” Her statements were inconsistent.”
After nearly eight hours, District Judge Roger Kangas ruled that there was enough evidence to go to trial and the case was bound over to the circuit court.
“Fundamentally there’s a real inability to understand how she came out of this unscathed and he got burned to death,” said Judge Kangas. “In any event based on that I am going to bind this over on the charges that were brought.”
The arraignment date for the circuit court had not yet been set.
The defense requested that the court set Boxley’s bond, as she has been held for at least 90 days, and the defense and prosecution anticipate her bond will be set sometime next week.
