Northern Mich. man gets two life sentences for deaths of Alpena Co. women

Alpena — A northern Michigan man proclaimed his innocence on Thursday before a judge sentenced him to spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2021 murders of two Alpena women.

Alpena County Circuit Judge Alan Curtis sentenced Brad Adam Srebnik, 37, to life in prison without possibility of parole for the deaths of Brynn Bills and Abby Hill, as required by Michigan law for first-degree murder convictions.

Before his sentence was imposed, Srebnik told victims’ family members in the full courtroom he was sorry for their loss, but he was innocent of the charges.

“I did not kill Brynn Bills,” Srebnik said. “I did not kill Abby Hill. There is no justice being served here today.”

A jury last month found Srebnik guilty of premeditated homicide. Police say Srebnik shot his girlfriend, Abby Hill, to keep her from telling police he strangled to death 17-year-old Brynn Bills. A six-week search for the missing teen led police to discover Bills’ body buried in the back yard of a rural Alpena home.

The life sentence was not justice, several family members of the victims agreed. Their loved ones’ killer deserved worse, they said.

Reading a statement before Srebnik was sentenced, Rexann Chischilly, Bills’ aunt, said she hopes Srebnik will experience true justice in prison, “the special kind reserved for predators like you, the kind that prey on young, innocent girls."

Police found Bills’ body buried at the home of Srebnik’s friend, Josh Wirgau, in September 2021.

Bills’ mother reported the teen missing more than a month earlier, saying the girl had dropped out of social media contact. Originally from the small town of Mio, about an hour southwest of Alpena, Bills moved to the larger city without her parents some time before she was killed. For months or longer, she couch surfed in the homes of numerous people known to police as key players in Alpena’s drug trafficking circles.

Through those circles, Bills encountered and was befriended by Hill, according to social media messages.Police say Srebnik killed Bills in his house after Hill picked the girl up to “hang out” in early August, shortly before Bills’ 18th birthday. Bills was never seen or heard from again until a tipster prompted police to dig behind Wirgau’s Alpena Township home.

Initially charged with murder as a co-conspirator until he agreed to testify against Srebnik, Wirgau told jurors about Srebnik’s mounting panic as police closed in during the week before the discovery of Bills’ body. The day before the tip about the body’s location landed on the Michigan State Police-Alpena Post fax machine, Srebnik marched Hills into the woods north of Alpena and shot her in the head, Wirgau testified.

Wirgau led police to the execution site, saying Srebnik killed Hill because he believed she planned to turn him in for Bills’ murder. Police found Hill’s body abandoned on a rocky hill, where it had tumbled against a tree.

A low grumble from family members in the courtroom gallery could be heard during the sentencing Thursday when Srebnik declared his innocence.

“You are not a strong man but a weak man,” Bills’ cousin, Sydney Chischilly, told Srebnik in a victim impact statement. “You are a coward to your core.”

Srebnik’s attorney, Patrick Cherry, asked Curtis to consider an alternate sentence, calling Michigan’s mandatory sentence for first-degree murder an unconstitutional interference by the Legislature and an abuse of the separation of powers.

Curtis nixed Cherry’s request and sentenced Srebnik to consecutive life sentences, plus five years for a weapons charge.

Closure for the families and the community, along with accountability for the convicted, does not erase the pain and horror caused by the murders, Curtis told Srebnik as he imposed the sentence.

“It pains me to say that you get life,” Curtis said, “when you intentionally and deliberately murdered two young women. They do not get life. You made that decision for them.”

An appeal on Srebnik’s behalf will be filed in about six months, Cherry said.

Srebnik will be transferred from the Alpena County Jail to the Charles E. Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson to await assignment to a state prison to begin serving his two life sentences.