Wednesday’s sentencing of Joseph Reiner for his brutal stabbing murder of JoAnn Eisenhardt of Macomb Township was certainly intense as Howard Eistenhardt confronted Reiner.

It also contained some interesting side lights:

* A probation officer informed Judge Peter J. Maceroni that due to a recent state Supreme Court ruling, he had to take into account Reiner’s prior convictions for which he was given status under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, designed to give a second chance to offenders aged 17 through 20, although it didn’t really matter in this case since Reiner got life without parole.

Maceroni said he disagrees with the ruling because the purpose of HYTA is to erase the offender’s felony record.

* Reiner dared to do the rare thing of interrupting Maceroni during his statement prior to delivering the sentence. Reiner made some vague reference to Maceroni’s friend being the ex-boyfriend of his mother and the friend "should stay away" from her.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” the judge shot back.

* Reiner in maintaining his innocence talked about catching the “real killer” (my quote, like O.J. looked).

Here it is: “I might have been in the area. That’s fine. The person who did this is a coward.  I know because that same person sent two people to try to kill me a year ago. But they didn’t succeed. That’s OK because I’m going to track him. I hope the media is listening because I want him to get this message because I know where he is at. And I’m going to follow him everywhere through the system. And when we cross paths again, you guys can’t possibly give me more any more time than I’m about to get today because I’m getting natural life. So I hope I can bring retribution not only for just myself but for the family of JoAnn Eisenhardt …. I can’t give you the name. This is something that I don’t do.  I wish I would but I’m not going to do it today. I’ve suffered through this for two years. I’m the old lady killer. ‘He’s killed an old lady.’ All this stuff is getting dumped on me. I’ll take that today.”

My take on it is that he made the statement to help his status in prison because he killed “an old lady.” Word is prisoners don’t like prisoners who kill or molest children or senior citizens.