In July, MDOC pulled a warden off his post the same night he warned that someone was going to get killed. Since March, three men have been killed in their cells at Bellamy Creek, and its former arsenal sergeant is under federal indictment. One of those wardens is still running his prison. Sources say the other is now a warden’s administrative assistant.
Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia has had three suspected homicides since March 2026, each inside a two-person cell. Donte Roshod Houston, 35, is the most recent, found unresponsive on October 25. The facility’s former arsenal sergeant, Casey Wagner, faces a four-count federal indictment, including a machinegun charge, after investigators recovered MDOC property from his home. Warden Richard Brokaw remains in charge. Sources say he is still within his probationary period.
John Christiansen, the warden MDOC reassigned in July after he warned leadership that understaffing would get someone killed, has now been assigned to the Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility as the warden’s administrative assistant, according to inside sources. MDOC has the authority to move a warden. It has shown which wardens it is willing to move.
Who has been charged in the Bellamy Creek deaths?
Michael Ryan Brewer, McGehee’s cellmate, was charged with open murder. State police named Michael Christopher Glance a person of interest in Kelly’s death. Houston’s cellmate is the suspect in his death but has not been named or charged.
Is Casey Wagner still employed by MDOC?
No. He resigned after the February search of his home. His federal case is pending in the Western District of Michigan.
Who is calling for Brokaw’s resignation?
Humanity for Prisoners, a Michigan advocacy organization, issued an urgent alert calling on him to resign.
Did MDOC comment?
MDOC’s public information office has not responded to previous Clutch Justice requests for comment.
Two Wardens, Two Outcomes
I want to put two personnel decisions side by side, because MDOC never will.
In July, the warden at Central Michigan Correctional Facility in St. Louis emailed the department’s leadership. He told them his prison was going to run with a fraction of the officers it needed the next day, and that someone was going to die. MDOC moved him out that night.
In Ionia, at Bellamy Creek, three men have died in their cells since March. The arsenal sergeant who controlled the prison’s weapons is under federal indictment. The facility is one of the most understaffed in the state. Its warden is still at his desk.
One warden described the danger. The other is presiding over it. Only one of them lost his job.
Three Homicides, Same Kind of Cell
The first death came overnight on March 27. Joshua McGehee, 40, died inside a Level 4 housing unit at Bellamy Creek. His cellmate, Michael Ryan Brewer, 35, was charged with open murder, according to Detroit Free Press reporting.
On August 19, staff found Kevin Kelly, 36, unresponsive in his two-person cell. He was serving a two-to-five-year sentence. State police named Michael Christopher Glance, who is serving 55 years, a person of interest, WCMU reported.
Around midday on Saturday, October 25, staff making rounds found Donte Roshod Houston, 35, unresponsive in his two-person cell. Staff and responding EMS attempted to save him. He was pronounced dead. Michigan State Police from the Lakeview Post are investigating it as a suspected homicide and have identified his cellmate as the suspect. Days before Houston died, an incarcerated man attacked a corrections officer at the same facility, 13 ON YOUR SIDE reported.
For scale: MDOC reported one homicide across all 26 of its prisons in 2025, according to WXYZ. Bellamy Creek alone has three in 2026, with two months left in the year.
| Item | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Facility | Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility, Ionia; Levels I, II, and IV |
| Warden | Richard Brokaw (per MDOC); probationary, sources say |
| Homicides since March | Three suspected, all in two-person cells |
| Staff vacancy rate | 22.7% (statewide average roughly 16%) |
| Former arsenal sergeant | Casey Wagner; United States v. Wagner, No. 1:26-cr-00054-HYJ (W.D. Mich.) |
| Overdoses | Multiple, sources say |
| Investigating agency | Michigan State Police, Lakeview Post |
The arsenal sergeant’s house
Deputies and the MSP Bomb Squad search Casey Wagner’s home and recover 196 firearms, explosives, and MDOC equipment, including ammunition shipped to Bellamy Creek. Prosecutors later describe an ounce of meth, a meth pipe, and a coat holding packaged marijuana.
First homicide
Joshua McGehee, 40, dies in his cell. His cellmate, Michael Ryan Brewer, is later charged with open murder.
Wagner indicted
A federal grand jury indicts Wagner on four counts, including a machinegun charge. Ionia County dismisses its 25 state charges, and Wagner is taken into federal custody.
A warden warns, and is moved
Warden John Christiansen emails MDOC leadership that only 14 officers will work a shift that needs 51, and that someone will be killed. He is reassigned to a Lansing desk that night.
Second homicide
Kevin Kelly, 36, is found unresponsive in his two-person cell. State police name a person of interest.
Third homicide
Donte Roshod Houston, 35, is found unresponsive in his two-person cell during rounds. His cellmate is the suspect. Days earlier, a corrections officer was attacked at the facility.
The warning gets a demotion
Inside sources say Christiansen has been assigned to Handlon as the warden’s administrative assistant. Whether the move came with a pay cut is not known.
The Arsenal Sergeant
Clutch Justice has followed Casey Wagner since before his arrest. He was the arsenal sergeant at Bellamy Creek, the person responsible for the facility’s weapons and munitions. On February 20, the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad, searched his Ionia Township home and recovered 196 firearms, homemade explosive devices, and an under-barrel grenade launcher.
The weapons were not all they found. At Wagner’s February 23 arraignment, which Clutch Justice attended, the prosecutor described an ounce of methamphetamine, a meth pipe, and a coat holding multiple packaged quantities of marijuana. An ounce is roughly 28 grams. Packaged marijuana was not among the original charges; the prosecutor said more charges could follow. The man trusted with Bellamy Creek’s arsenal was facing a methamphetamine possession charge alongside his firearms counts.
Investigators also found property belonging to MDOC. A sheriff’s detective testified it included riot helmets, gas masks and filters, radios, chemical agents, smoke and gas munitions, a Taser with cartridges, and a case of .40-caliber ammunition shipped to Bellamy Creek. The detective testified that the Bellamy Creek warden confirmed Wagner had no authorization to take any of it. MDOC placed him on an unpaid stop order and opened an internal investigation. Wagner resigned.
On May 19, a federal grand jury indicted him on four counts, including possession of a machinegun. The federal case carries no drug count. Ionia County Prosecutor Kyle Butler dismissed the state’s 25 charges two days later, saying the move “clears the way for the federal government to move forward.” Wagner was arrested at the courthouse. His attorney said he intends to plead not guilty. The indictment charges Wagner alone.
According to inside sources, Brokaw was Wagner’s boss, and the two were friends. Who supervised the person holding the keys to the arsenal, and how closely, is the kind of question an internal investigation exists to answer. MDOC has never said what its investigation into Wagner found, or whether it looked at supervision at all.
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$10/month ?The Warden Who Said It Out Loud
John Christiansen spent 27 years with MDOC and three as warden at Central Michigan Correctional Facility. In July, he learned only 14 corrections officers would work at his prison the next day, against 51 positions that should have been filled. He emailed MDOC’s assistant deputy director. He told ABC12 what he wrote: “someone is going to get killed in here.”
He was reassigned that night to a desk job in Lansing. The staffing changes he had proposed, including bringing in officers from other facilities, went into effect after he left. He told ABC12 he expected MDOC would not renew his contract in November. Clutch Justice reported on his reassignment in August.
Now, according to inside sources, MDOC has assigned Christiansen to the Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia as the warden’s administrative assistant. That is a long way down from running a prison. Whether it came with a pay cut is not known. Handlon sits in the same Ionia prison cluster as Bellamy Creek.
MDOC moved fast on the warden who put the danger in writing. It has not moved at all on the warden whose prison produced the deaths he warned about. The message to every warden in the system is clear: the risk is in saying it, not in letting it happen.
Probation, Contract, and the Lever MDOC Already Holds
Inside sources say Brokaw is a probationary warden, still within the 12-month probationary period that comes with the job. Probation exists for exactly this: to let an employer decide whether someone is suited to a role before that person is settled into it. Three homicides, a federally indicted arsenal sergeant, overdoses, and one of the highest vacancy rates in the state would ordinarily be enough for that decision, without anyone having to prove misconduct.
There is a second layer. MDOC’s own 2026 job posting for the warden position at Central Michigan Correctional Facility, Christiansen’s former post, lists it as an SPS contract job paying $112,333 to $163,339 a year. Christiansen himself spoke about his contract coming up for renewal. Wardens serve under contract terms the department controls.
Under either structure, the result is the same. MDOC does not need a disciplinary finding, a hearing, or a scandal to move a warden. It proved that in July, in a single night, with Christiansen. Leaving Brokaw in place is a choice the department is making.
What a Warden Does Not Control
The fair counterargument goes like this. A warden does not set MDOC’s statewide staffing levels. A warden does not write the classification system that decides who gets placed in a two-person cell. Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization, has blamed improper security classification for at least one of the Bellamy Creek killings. He says the prison has a large number of Level 4 two-person cells housing men who belong at Level 5 in single cells, and that in those conditions, “it doesn’t take much for them to lose their cool.” Michigan prisons saw four suspected homicides in five weeks starting March 27, not all at Bellamy Creek.
All of that is true, and it cuts both ways. Christiansen did not control statewide staffing either. He did not write the classification system. He was moved anyway, for describing a problem he had no power to fix. If structural causes excuse the warden at Bellamy Creek, they excused the warden at St. Louis. MDOC applied the standard to one of them.
And the arsenal is not a statewide abstraction. Weapons control inside a facility is a facility responsibility. MDOC equipment, including ammunition shipped to Bellamy Creek, ended up in an employee’s house, and the warden confirmed to investigators that the removal was never authorized.
Why This Matters Beyond Ionia
Every warden in Michigan watched what happened to Christiansen. The lesson was not subtle. Put the danger in writing, and you lose your prison. Now they are watching what happens at Bellamy Creek, and the lesson there is just as clear. Preside over it quietly, and you keep yours.
That is how a corrections system trains its leaders to stop warning it. The emails stop. The staffing numbers stay inside the building. The next death arrives with no paper trail showing anyone saw it coming, because the one person who did was moved to a desk.
Humanity for Prisoners has called for Brokaw to resign, describing five violent and drug-related deaths in eight months and 111 officer posts left vacant. MDOC does not need him to resign. It has a probationary period, a contract structure, and a demonstrated willingness to move a warden overnight.
Donte Houston was 35. Kevin Kelly was 36. Joshua McGehee was 40. MDOC had the tool to act after the first one. It used it on the man who said there would be more.
Related Clutch reporting: MDOC Reassigned the Warden Who Asked for Safety and Federal Authorities Detain Former Michigan Department of Corrections Employee Casey Wagner. Full archive: Casey Wagner coverage.
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