Royal Oak Homicide Suspect Back in Court Friday

The man of 41-year-old Ranae Ann Chupick of Royal Oak is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. Friday in before Judge Terrence Brennan for a preliminary examination.

The court date for Christopher Michael Hearn, 23, of Clinton Township had previously been rescheduled to grant prosecutors time to arrange for a “necessary witness” to be in court.

"Everything appears to be on target for (Friday)," Detective Don Swiatkowski said Wednesday.

to grant his defense time to review evidence and for autopsy reports to be completed.

and was arrested on a charge of domestic assault on Chupick in 2010 but was not convicted. Hearn was released from state prison in January 2010 after serving more than three years on a Livingston County home invasion conviction, state records show.

On Sept. 19, co-workers who were worried that Chupick had not shown up at work  inside in her second-floor home above the Skin Boutique salon on Rochester Road north of 13 Mile. The apartment showed signs of a struggle, and Chupick was found partially nude, beaten and stabbed at least 12 times, . Her throat had been slashed and she’d been hit in the head with a blunt object, he said.

Hearn was of a friend after law enforcement officials received a tip. Police said Hearn admitted to the friend that he had killed Chupick. The friend recorded Hearn's admission and told his mother about it, who then called police, Swiatkowski said.