- April 18, 2024
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A formerly resolved criminal case against Erick Niemi has been reopened in light of murder charges brought against him for allegedly killing his landlord in May.
Niemi was charged in 2012 with grand theft after borrowing a generator and refusing to return it, according to court documents. He pled no contest in February and was placed in a pretrial intervention program. The intervention program is similar to probation, except that felony charges are dropped upon completion intervention programs, all of the programs' terms.
Part of Niemi's intervention terms mandated that he refrain from criminal activity. Any arrest would constitute a violation of his pretrial intervention program.
But Niemi was arrested June 2 on charges of murdering his landlord, Leonard Lynn, a crime that he admitted to when deputies detained him shortly after discovering Lynn’s body. Niemi told investigators that he killed Lynn during an argument because he was unhappy with the way Lynn had been treating him. Because it was not made in court and under legal counsel, Niemi's admission does not constitute a plea, and he is still entitled to a jury trial.
In response to the violation of his intervention program, Heidi Spence, a correctional probation officer, and Douglas Daniel, a correctional probation supervisor, asked the court to return Niemi’s case to the active docket, according to court records.
Niemi will be sentenced at 9 a.m. on July 1. The charges against him for theft of the generator constitute a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Niemi is already being held on no bond in the Flagler County Inmate Facility as he awaits trial for murder. If convicted, his sentence will be added to the one he is given in the grand theft case. In Florida, first-degree murder carries a possible death sentence.
