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Murder of Ronnie Greene Jr.

On October 27th, 1997, a horrifying crime was committed in Pontiac, Michigan. 18-year-old Ronnie Greene Jr. was shot and killed with a stolen .22 caliber rifle while standing outside a party store.

The shooter, 11-year-old Nathaniel Abraham, was pulled out of class and arrested four days later. The 5-foot-tall 65-pound preteen killer was wearing the Abraham Lincoln costume he wore to his school’s Halloween party.

Abraham was born on January 19th, 1986. By the time he was 11, the police knew his name as he had 22 interactions with them for threatening kids and adults, arson, break-ins, and fighting, but they were all shocked that he killed someone.

The sixth grader was charged with first-degree murder and went to trial two years later when he was 13 years old. He was convicted as an adult of second-degree murder. Judge Eugene Moore declined to hand down an adult punishment. He sent the teen to juvenile detention for 8 years.

While locked up, Abraham got his GED and started taking college classes. But he wasn’t perfect and did have issues with his temper and problems with authority.

Second Chance goes south

When his release date came on January 18th, 2017, Judge Moore told him, “Nathaniel, you can succeed. You have the guts, the training, the ability, and you can make it. But only you can decide what direction you will go.”

He also stated, “Show us all that you have become a caring, productive member of society, I know you can do it. Do it.”

Abraham responded to the judge, saying, “You saw something in me before a lot of people did.” “Sure enough, I’m not going back into society to cause any other families any hurt or harm.”

Abraham walked out of the courtroom and immediately got access to some foster care funding that allowed him to get two years of free rent, college tuition, and food stamps. He also had a job lined up as a maintenance worker in Bay City, Michigan.

People believed in him, and he had all the tools to turn things around, but he continued to get in trouble. In May 2018, just 18 months after he was released from juvenile detention, he was spotted in Pontiac, Michigan, doing a drug deal. After police stopped him, they found 254 Ecstasy pills.

He was sent back to prison for four to 20 years.

In 2011, while he was locked up, he assaulted two corrections officers.

Third Chance Also Goes Bad

He served 9 years and was paroled in June 2017 when he was 31. His parole ended in July 2018, and he immediately got in more trouble.

On August 6th, 2018, a woman reported that a man exposed himself to her because she wouldn’t hire him to cut her grass.

After getting a description of the man, police saw Abraham cutting grass in the neighborhood. He was arrested after the woman identified him as the flasher. He was booked in and released on a $100 bond.

He didn’t attend court two days later, so the cops went looking for him. He resisted and tried to punch the three deputies who were trying to take him in. They had to taser him to get him under control.

He was charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. He reportedly exposed himself to other inmates while in the local jail.

By February 2019, he was back on the streets and sold meth and heroin to an undercover officer on multiple occasions.

Police searched homes connected to Abraham and found just under 5 grams of meth and just over $3,000 cash.

He was charged with five counts of delivering and or manufacturing a controlled substance and a count of maintaining a drug house.

Most Recent Conviction

In May 2019, he pleaded guilty to the delivery of meth and heroin.

At his June 2019 sentencing hearing, he stated, “I want to apologize to the court for my actions and I take full responsibility for them,”

“And I want to apologize to my family. I’ve disappointed them.” “I’ve also learned being incarcerated doesn’t just affect the person being incarcerated.”

The prosecution asked for a 15-year sentence. Since Abraham was considered a habitual offender, he could have gotten a life sentence.

The judge gave him a sentence of 6 to 40 years. A month later, he received a 1 to 15-year concurrent sentence for the resisting arrest case from August 2018. The indecent exposure case never went forward.

His earliest possible release date was February 2025, but that date has come and gone, and he remains behind bars.

He would get out in February 2059, when he is 73 years old, if he is forced to serve his complete sentence. He would