COLDWATER, Mich. (WLKI)- A Lansing man has been sentenced to 18 to 40 years in prison in connection with a Branch County sex crime involving a 15-year-old girl.
Acting Circuit Judge Brent Weigle sentenced 47-year-old Gregory Wines after Wines entered a no-contest plea in August to one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct as a fourth habitual offender.
According to court records, the girl told police she met Wines through the Nonames dating app. Investigators said Wines picked her up from her home, took her to a trailer at Trail Tree Village in Coldwater, later stopped at Walmart to purchase emergency contraception, and then returned her home.
Coldwater Police Detective Sergeant Sarah Gunneman used surveillance video and data from a Flock license plate reader to identify Wines' vehicle during the investigation.
Wines' sentence comes after a lengthy prior prison history. He spent nearly three decades behind bars for his role in a 1993 carjacking, kidnapping, robbery and murder in Grand Rapids. Wines was 17 at the time of that crime.
He was initially sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole. That sentence was later revisited after U.S. Supreme Court rulings found mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders unconstitutional and required states to reconsider affected cases.
In 2022, a Kent County judge resentenced Wines to a minimum term matching the time he had already served, allowing him to be paroled.
Court records show a separate solicitation case from a Jackson County sting operation was dismissed as part of Wines' plea agreement in the Branch County case.