A 31-year-old Clinton Township man was convicted of first-degree, premeditated murder Thursday for the slaying of his estranged wife and the mother of his three young children in their former marital home.

Steven Bryce Wheeler will be ordered to serve the rest of his life in prison without a chance for parole for the death of 33-year-old Jordan Wheeler following his conviction by a seven-man, seven-woman Macomb County jury that deliberated about five hours over two days.

A drunken, expletive-yelling Wheeler shot Jordan five times minutes after she arrived at the couple’s former marital home near 15 Mile Road and Gratiot Avenue in October 2023. She had moved out but had come to pick up their two sons, who called their mother saying their father was being mean to them.

Kelly Femminineo, Jordan’s sister, said she and other family members and relatives who attended the trial are pleased with the outcome.

“We are very happy with the first-degree murder verdict,” Femminineo said. “The prosecutors and detectives did an amazing job. It was a clean case. He can never hurt the kids again, and they are very happy about that. They can rest easy.”

She said family members were confident the jury would come back with at least second-degree murder, which was an option and would have meant Wheeler could have been paroled at some point.

“We were not worried at all,” she said. “It’s finally come to an end. It’s the best ending.”

The family was “patient” while they attended the months of court proceedings.

Wheeler took the stand in his defense.

“He was trying to save himself and talk himself out of stuff that he couldn’t,” she said. “He tried to paint a different picture of what was really going on. His explanation was he had tunnel vision and wishes he didn’t do it.”

She noted he knew his two sons were present when he shot Jordan.

“I don’t think anything mattered,” she said.

She added the marriage was rocky. Jordan Wheeler had filed for divorce three months before her death.

“It was very up and down with them with the drinking and infidelity” by Steven Wheeler, she said.

Jordan had tried to work with her husband on his issues.

“It was trying all by herself trying to get him help,” she said.

Wheeler’s family attended trial proceedings last week but stopped attending this week, she said.

Judge Julie Gatti scheduled the sentencing for Feb. 26.

The incident took place at about 10 p.m. Oct. 19, 2023, after Jordan Wheeler, who had moved with the children to her sister’s Mount Clemens home, went to the Woodward Street home to pick up the boys.

Wheeler shot his wife, who was dressed in pajama bottoms, a T-shirt and slippers, within about six to seven minutes of her arrival.

When she arrived, Wheeler screamed expletives, including “Get the f— out of my house” and “Get the f— out of my life.”

When he grabbed his wife in the kitchen, she called 911.

When a dispatcher asked if guns were in the house, and Jordan Wheeler replied there were, he went to his bedroom closet, retrieved a handgun and shot fired the fatal shots.

He can be heard in the 911 call yelling, “F— you. I f—ing killed you bitch. I shot you in the f—ing head.”

The two boys ran out of the house about 10 seconds before the shooting and were standing near their mother’s car, which was parked in the street, when it occurred. The older boy testified he heard the gunshots and saw flashes of gunfire.

Police quickly responded and arrested Wheeler.

The deliberations began after closing arguments Wednesday and continued until about noon Thursday.

The jury asked to see three pieces of evidence during their deliberations – an approximately four-minute video and audio recording by Jordan Wheeler on her cell phone from when she entered the home to pick up her two sons to when she dialed 911, the emergency recording and a copy of an order regarding child custody from their unresolved divorce case.

The children live in Ohio with their grandparents.

“They are doing great,” Femminineo said.

“They are excelling in school and happy as can be,” she said.

She said the family has plans to create a memorial for Jordan Wheeler to help her children, including not only the boys but also a daughter who is now 5, to remember their mother. They also plan to take some actions to fight domestic violence, she added.

“We can start doing things in her honor, starting doing things about domestic violence in her honor,” she said.

Kelly Femminineo is married to Judge Jacob Femminineo of 41B District Court in Clinton Township.

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A Macomb County jury spent nearly three hours Wednesday deliberating the fate of a 31-year-old Clinton Township man charged with first-degree murder in the 2023 fatal shooting of his estranged wife at their former marital home.

The six-woman, six-man jury mulled the case from about 2 p.m. to shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens for the death of Jordan Wheeler, 33, the mother of his three children.

The jury is slated to return to court at 10 a.m. Thursday to resume deliberating.

The deliberations follow a six-day trial in front of Judge Julie Gatti.

Jurors could reach a verdict of second-degree murder, which carries a penalty of up to life in prison with a change for parole. A first-degree murder conviction carries a mandator life-without-parole term.

The prosecution says Wheeler had time to premeditate and reflect on his actions while his defense attorney says he did not have time to deliberate.

The jury asked to see three pieces of evidence during their deliberations – an approximately four-minute video and audio recording by Jordan Wheeler on her cell phone from when she entered the home to pick up her two sons to when she dialed 911, the 911 recording and a copy of an order regarding child custody from their unresolved divorce case.

The deliberations began after closing arguments Wednesday. Last Friday, Wheeler testified in his defense.

The incident took place at about 10 p.m. Oct. 19, 2023, after Jordan Wheeler, who had moved with the children to her sister’s Mount Clemens home, went to the Woodward Street home to pick up her two sons after they called to complain about their father.

When she arrived, an intoxicated Wheeler screamed expletives, including “Get the f— out of my house” and “Get the f— out of my life.”

When he grabbed his wife in the kitchen, she called 911.

After the 911 dispatcher asked if guns were in the house, and Jordan Wheeler replied there were, the defendant went to his bedroom closet, retrieved a handgun and shot her five times in the head.

He can be heard in the 911 call yelling, “F— you. I f—ing killed you bitch. I shot you in the f—ing head.”

The two boys – 8 and 7 at the time – ran out of the house about 10 seconds before the shooting and were standing near their mother’s car, which was parked in the street, when it occurred. The older boy testified he heard the gunshots and saw flashes of gunfire.

Police quickly responded and arrested Wheeler.

Jordan Wheeler’s sister, Kelly Femminineo, who testified, is the wife of Judge Jacob Femminineo of 41B District Court in Clinton Township, who attended some of the trial proceedings.

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A man who has six prior convictions of illicitly viewing or filming unclothed women in Detroit-area restrooms pleaded no contest to seventh incident of the act at the Meijer store in Clinton Township.

Cedric James Simpson also entered a plea Tuesday to using a computer to commit a crime in front of Macomb County Circuit Judge James Maceroni for a September 2023 incident at the store at Groesbeck Highway and Cass Avenue.

As part of a plea and sentencing deal with Macomb prosecutors, a separate charge of surveilling an unclothed person in July 2020 in Roseville will be dismissed, and he will be ordered to serve two to 10 years in prison at his Feb. 5 sentencing. The victim in the Roseville incident agreed with the outcome, prosecutors said.

Maceroni told Simpson if he decides Simpson should get a higher sentence, he will be allowed to withdraw his plea and force a trial.

According to prosecutors, Simpson entered the women’s restroom, hid in a stall and held his phone over the top of the adjoining wall to film a woman.

Smith appeared in court Tuesday wearing a state prison outfit because he was sentenced in October to two years in prison for surveilling an unclothed person October 2023 in Wayne County, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records.

He served 10 years in prison for several similar convictions in Macomb and Oakland counties.

He was convicted by a jury in January 2013 of the same charge for peeking over a stall wall to view a woman using the women’s restroom between noon and 1 p.m. July 7, 2011, in the women’s restroom at Buffalo Wild Wings on Market Street in Mount Clemens.

In September 2022, he was caught looking at a woman in a restroom at the now-closed Bailey’s Pub & Grille in Troy and pleaded no contest to the surveilling charge, records say.

For those two cases, he was sentenced to five years in Macomb and four years in Oakland to a maximum of 10 years in both cases, which he completed. He was released in November 2022, MDOC records say.

He previously was convicted by plea in Macomb of three charges of surveilling an unclothed person for three incidents in 2007 and 2008 for which he served two years, MDOC records say. One incident occurred in July 2008 in a second-floor restroom in the county courthouse in Mount Clemens, where he was attending a hearing for a 2007 case.