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Judge sends teen to prison for killing of Ingham County Democratic official
LANSING — A 15-year-old boy was sentenced to decades in prison Wednesday for killing political activist Theodore “Ted” Lawson last fall during an attempted robbery.
Lamar Patrick Kemp issued a brief apology before Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk sentenced him to 35 to 70 years in prison for second-degree murder. Kemp’s plea deal fixed his minimum sentence at 35 years and called for him to receive no less than 60 years on the maximum.
Kemp will get 347 days credit for time served.
Draganchuck referred to Kemp as “a sociopath” who is “completely unencumbered by remorse, regret or sorrow.”
Lamar Kemp, 15, leaves Ingham County Circuit Judge Joyce Draganchuk’s courtroom, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024 after pleading guilty to second-degree in connection with the death of Theodore (Ted) Lawson in October 2023.
Kemp in early August admitted shooting Lawson with a .22-caliber handgun on Oct. 8, 2023, while the activist was campaigning for a Lansing City Council candidate on North Jenison Avenue, near West Maple Street. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Lawson, 63, was a member of Ingham County’s Board of Canvassers and served as secretary for the Ingham County Democratic Party. He was well-known in political circles and had worked on many election campaigns for Democrats.
Police and prosecutors said the killing did not appear to be connected to Lawson’s political activities or beliefs. Then-Lansing Police Chief Ellery Sosebee said Kemp intended to get money from Lawson in what he described as an attempted robbery.
Ingham County Prosecutor John Dewane decided to charge Kemp as an adult, citing the nature of the offense and Kemp’s prior record in the juvenile system.
In a court affidavit, police said Kemp was with two other teenagers that afternoon, one of whom said he saw Kemp shoot Lawson after asking him for a dollar.
A surveillance camera captured Lawson leaving a driveway on North Jenison while three “subjects” walked on the other side of the street, a detective said in the affidavit. A person later identified as Kemp crossed the street to approach Lawson, and the two walked out of camera view, the detective wrote.
The video captured the sound of a gunshot and showed Kemp and two companions running south on North Jenison, out of the camera’s view.
The same three suspects were captured on video at a dollar store on North Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard just minutes before the shooting, the detective wrote. Juvenile Court officers were able to identify all three youths.
The plea deal also resolved a separate case in which Kemp was charged with trying to intimidate witnesses in the case from the Ingham County Jail while being held there. Kemp’s communication privileges at the jail were substantially limited as a result.
At the time, Dewane said his office also authorized intimidation charges against three adults in connection with the case, although he did not identify the adults or disclose details about the allegations.
Prosecutors said Kemp had four prior contacts with the juvenile court system, three of them involving assaultive conduct, and was on absconder status from Eaton County at the time Lawson was killed.
Had Kemp gone to trial, a first-degree murder conviction likely would have been a possible outcome.
First-degree murder carries mandatory life in prison without parole, but the U.S. Supreme Court has held that automatic life sentences for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional because their brains haven’t fully developed.
Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Ted Lawson killer Lamar Kemp sent to prison by Ingham County judge
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