BAY CITY, MI — A judge has ruled jurors can hear recordings of a Bay City man’s conversations with police detectives, in which he allegedly confessed to strangling and dismembering a local school custodian.

Robert D. Tweedly Jr. on Wednesday, Dec. 3, appeared before Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran for a Walker hearing. Walker hearings are held before trial so a judge can determine if a defendant voluntarily and knowingly gave statements to police.

Tweedly, 41, is charged with open murder and disinterment or mutilation of a dead body in the death of 41-year-old Justie T. Stilwell.

Defense attorney James F. Piazza sought to suppress Tweedly’s statements during a police interrogation, arguing detectives violated his client’s Miranda rights by continuing to question him after he

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