Paul Marcus Carter & Accessory featuring The Outer Vibe

Paul Marcus Carter was only 16 when he and his accessory friend, Juan made choices that would changes lives forever.

We leave you with a happy ending and on a good note as promised with:

The Outer Vibe

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Transcript

Paul Marcus Carter

MDOC #250980

Dob  7-17-1979  

Resides at the Ernest C Brooks facility

On Sunday November 12, 1995  around 2 in the afternoon,  David VanTatenhove asked his friend Arthur Zima to help him look for his car.

He had left the keys in the car and surprisingly, the car was gone.  David was from Holland but was  staying with a friend in Wyoming at the time and he wanted to drive around, ask questions and  find the car.  

It appears that David had suspicions or a little bit of knowledge as to where the car would be because after Arthur picked up his long-time friend, they headed to a particular neighborhood.

Once there, David hopped out of the car and talked to a couple of teens, most likely asking if they knew anything about this missing car.

They said they knew what was up.  They could find his car for him, yo.  David offered to pay them each fifty bucks if they help him recover his stolen car.  THey were all for it.  

To Arthur's surprise, the kids hop into his car with them.  He wasn’t too keen on the idea but kind of went with the flow to help David get his car back.

I don’t know how long this road trip took but it became evident that these two punks were just trying to get a quick buck because they had no idea where David’s car was.

When confronted by David about this and upon finding out that David didn’t have the money he was offering them the kids pulled a gun on Arthur and David.   

I can’t make out how this part of the transaction went down.  There is a lot of testimony and newspaper articles but I’m assuming it was like Get out of the fucking car, some gun waving and scare tactics.  I do know that they found a knife in a briefcase/bag type thing of David's in the car and put the knife to David's throat.

The kids gain control of Arthur’s car.  It’s not even his car, it’s his wife’s Chevy Cavalier, so he’s in double trouble at this point.  They are joy riding around Grand Rapids with the two adults in the back.

These kids have names given to them at birth, Paul Marcus Carter, is 16 and his friend Juan Cantu Jr also 16.

They pick up a third kid and they are just waving the gun and knife around to maintain control of David and Arthur.  I guess they are bragging a bit about being in a gang. 

Maybe that is why David kind of knew where to go at the beginning of this mess to look for his car.  Which, by the way, he had left the key in.  So it was an easy target to take.

The kids are agitated, they are not even looking for the stolen car, they just want money at this point and when they realize that there is no money to be had,  they decide they are going to kill these two men then.

I mean, taking someone’s life over a hundred bucks total is pretty pathetic, but ok.  You do you.

They also decide that Newaygo is the place to do this.

They are all already in the car so the drive North starts.  It’s about 40 minutes north of Grand Rapids to get to Newaygo. There are a few ways to get there, old 131… 131, you could go over and take just 31 north out of Muskegon I mean, it’s out of the way but you could.

Why the fuck is everything 31 and 96 around here?  Can we not change the numbers so stupid people like me know where they are going.  Is there a road numbering system that I am completely oblivious to.    Aside from the 8 mile, 9 mile, 10 mile..

It’s written in many news articles that the kids parked on a remote gravel road, which is damn near every single road up there.

They park on a gravel road and they order David to get out of the car.  THey are legit going to murder him over this.

According to Arthur, they marched David about 20 feet from the gravel road and they “Popped off 4 shots” .

Meanwhile, poor Arthur is ordered to stay in the car and he’s having to watch this.  He's outnumbered, and out weaponed he doesn’t have much of a choice.  Honestly, he was just trying to help a friend find his stupid car and here they are in the woods being shot at.

After the shots are fired at David, the kids order Arthur to get out of the car and walk to where David has just been shot and to drag him back into the woods.  

Arthur does as he is told.  When he gets to David, he is still breathing.  But Arthur picks him up under the armpits and starts dragging him into the woods, Arthur is basically walking backwards. 

He runs into a branch and just kind of stops…probably out of awkward physical movements frustration and fear.  Like he’s not going any further.

The kids then forced Arthur to remove all of his clothing.   While standing there in his socks and underwear they snap a shot off.  

The bullet whizzed by Ahrthurs head,  I mean so close that the kids made him lift his frizzy hair to see if they actually missed.  They did.  This man is destined to freaking live.

In the Kalamazoo gazette Arthur is quoted as saying, “I’m thinking, I just witnessed the biggest miracle there was.  Anyone who says there ain't a god, they're wrong.”

These kids are well…kids.  They then decide that they need to take David from the woods and put him into the truck of Arthur's wife's chevy cavalier.  So they make Arthur do it.  In his undies and socks I guess.

One of the punks was telling Arthur that if he co operates, he will live.  After all, he’s not the one that stiffed him out of the fifty/hundred bucks.

Now we have David in the trunk shot who knows how many times out of the 4 shots and Arthur is in the back seat, head down with a gun pointed at it.  

He said he could hear David moaning from the trunk, so David is still alive at this point.

They drive back into grand rapids and are driving around Grand Rapids with Arthur still in the car.  He was punched, hit with the gun and continuously threatened while they drove around.  

Finally, the kids tied up Arthur with rope and packing tape, leaving him hog tied in a garage on Francis Ave SE in the Grand Rapids area.

Arthur only takes 20 minutes to free himself from their bondage.  I say only…it probably seemed like forever but in the scheme of things, Arthur kicked ass.

With clear plastic tape still hanging from him, Arthur escapes through a broken garage window and knocks on the door of the nearest home around 7:40 that night.

He’s been going through at least five hours of bullshit at the hands of these kids.

The couple kindly lets him in to help him and let him call 9-1-1 

The wife’s cavalier was spotted by a neighbor up the road from the garage around 10:40 that night…it turns out it was the kids, they came back in the same car to the same garage to check on Arthur but they couldn’t find the kids right away.

Sadly, they did find David in the trunk and he was no longer breathing.  He had passed away from his injuries.

They brought in the sniffer dogs to track them down and they tracked them directly to a pile of brush and snow in a small wooded lot between Francis and Garfield Park.

The two suspects went into custody without any problems after that. 

a third suspect came in willingly for questioning but was released.   I’m assuming this is the third kid they picked up to joy ride. 

While they have the suspects in custody, they do not have the weapon.  Gun nor the knife used.

On Monday, November 13, 1995 Paul Carter was arraigned sans bond on 

-open murder

-felony murder

-2 counts each of kidnapping & armed robbery

-possession of firearm during felony

Juan Cantu Jr. 

Accomplice to the following:

-open murder

-felony murder

-2 counts each of kidnapping & armed robbery

-possession of firearm during felony

The Grand Rapids Press reported that the two were brought into court together to face Grand Rapids District Judge Michael Christensen where the Judge gave a rather morbid warning to Paul Carter. 

Judge told Carter that due to his criminal history, the  FOUR armed robberies his future isn’t tht great.  Judge said “Which means, if you are convicted of these charges, you must die in a Michigan Department of Corrections Facility”

The two of them had separate jury trials in May and were sentenced in July.

Of course the debate of being tried as an adult or as a juvenile came in continuously throughout the whole ordeal.  Ultimately, due to the heinousness of the crimes committed, they were tried as adults.

They will serve life in prison for assault with intent to murder. 

They will serve another 50-80 years each for 2 counts of kidnapping.

They will serve 20-40 years each for armed robbery.

They will serve 5- 2 year sentences for felony firearms charges.

Both families of these kids were at the trial and the sentencing.  They lost their loved ones that day also.  On one side of the aisle, much like a wedding, you have the victim's family on the opposite side of the aisle, you have the parents of the kids who committed these crimes.

They were sentenced by Kent County Circuit Judge Paul Sullivan.   He gave a rather strong speech on the fact that he didn’t care who pulled the trigger of the gun.  They did this thing together and they are going to be punished together in the same manner.

Sullivan told the two “You might have been young, but you were old enough to know better.”

A 2012 US Supreme Court decision had already ruled mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles violated the Eighth Amendment. A few years later, another ruling made it so it could be applied retroactively. 

Meaning, that in December of 2025 Paul Marcus Carter was resentenced  

-40 to 60 years for his felony murder conviction 

- 40 to 60 years for the kidnapping charge.