PONTIAC, Mich. — Over three years after a fatal shooting inside a Pontiac apartment, Dontae Jermane Geter has been sentenced following a guilty plea that brought the long-running case to a close.
Court records show Geter was sentenced on January 13, 2026, to up to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and felony firearm in connection with the January 10, 2023 killing of Torrey Ryder, 31.
Ryder was found shot multiple times inside an apartment in the 60 block of Surrey Lane in Pontiac. Investigators with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office identified Geter as the suspect, and he was arrested in March 2023. Prosecutors initially charged him with open murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony, exposing him to a possible life sentence.
Why the case took years to resolve
Court dockets show the case was repeatedly delayed due to extended forensic and competency proceedings, including:
- court-ordered criminal responsibility evaluations
- multiple competency exams
- repeated referrals to forensic centers
- adjournments while forensic reports were pending
- rescheduled pretrial conferences tied to evaluation results
In September 2024, the court found Geter competent to proceed, though additional forensic-related delays followed. The case was ultimately scheduled for trial in late 2025.
Plea and sentencing outcome
Rather than proceed to a jury verdict, Geter entered a guilty plea on November 17, 2025. Under the plea agreement, the open murder charge was reduced to second-degree murder, while the felony firearm charge remained.
At sentencing, the court imposed the following:
- Second-degree murder (750.317)
- 22 years, 6 months to 50 years in prison
- 261 days of credit for time served applied to this sentence
- Felony firearm (750.227b)*
- Mandatory 2-year sentence, consecutive by law
- 730 days of credit for time served applied
* The 730 days of jail credit fully satisfies the mandatory felony firearm sentence. Because that sentence has already been served through credit, Geter is now serving only the second-degree murder sentence within the Michigan Department of Corrections.
With sentencing complete, the case, originally filed in June 2023, is now officially closed.