Michigan man kills self en route to Elkton prison

ELKTON — A man shot and killed himself about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday while on his way to serve a sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution.

Americ Joslin, 41, of Lansing, Mich., was being driven to the prison by his brother, according to Brian Koerbel, a deputy U.S. Marshal in Cleveland.

Joslin was to serve 40 months in custody on a fraud charge and five years of post-release supervision.

As he neared the prison, Joslin asked to get out so he could pray. He went into a wooded area and shot himself in the head, Koerbel said.

The Columbiana County Coroner’s Office is investigating but has not made a ruling.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to the scene. They were unavailable for comment.

Joslin had filed a voluntary bankruptcy case in Lansing in 2006 as the agent for the Dollar Nightclub.

According to the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal, Joslin was the former owner and operator of the Dollar Nightclub

in Lansing and Maggie’s Sports Grill in East Lansing.

Joslin was sentenced on March 6 to 3 1/2 years in federal prison for bank fraud and identity theft. The charges were in connection with a $111,400 home equity loan Joslin had taken out on his mother’s house.

Joslin was not in custody. His case was on appeal.

Joslin’s former attorney, Thomas Rasmusson, said he

thought the sentence would end up be shortened to a year or less because Joslin was cooperating and wasn’t a danger.

When asked about Joslin’s death, Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Hill of the Grand Rapids office said: “We don’t

know what happened outside there was a death down in Ohio.”