Investigators say video, tire tracks and witness statements conflict with the suspect’s account.
ROCKFORD, Mich. — A Kent County murder case now turns on two sharply different accounts of a December confrontation: a suspect’s claim that he tried to leave and police allegations that he drove at a man on purpose.
Thomas Patrick Olman, 49, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of John Ryan Joyce, who was struck by Olman’s pickup Dec. 11 and died March 4. Police say video from the truck’s dashcam, tracks in snow and other evidence show the crash was intentional.
Olman told detectives that he accelerated from where he was parked because he wanted to get away from Joyce, according to court records described in local reports. He said Joyce jumped in front of the vehicle. Police said the evidence showed the opposite. The affidavit says Joyce appeared in the dashcam view, the truck accelerated quickly and then veered toward him. Investigators wrote that Joyce tried to jump toward the yard when he realized the truck was turning in his direction. That gap between Olman’s statement and the evidence collected at the scene is expected to be a core issue as the case moves through court.
The confrontation followed a tense series of events tied to a divorce. Joyce and his estranged wife were in the process of ending their marriage, and she was dating Olman, police said. Earlier Dec. 11, Joyce went to Olman’s home and saw his estranged wife’s vehicle there. Joyce told investigators he believed she was supposed to give him a credit card as part of their divorce settlement. He searched the unlocked vehicle, did not find the card and took the keys instead. Police said Olman later drove the woman to Joyce’s home near Gibraltar Drive and Glencarin Drive so she could get the keys back.
Joyce told police his estranged wife came to the house and demanded the keys. He said he told her she did not need them and that Olman could drive her to work the next day. Joyce knew Olman was parked nearby, according to the affidavit, and said he went outside to return the keys to him directly. As Joyce approached the truck, he heard the engine rev and saw it come toward him. He told investigators Olman appeared to be going as fast as he could over the short distance before impact. Joyce later said he remembered flying and spinning through the air before landing in a driveway.
Investigators also cited evidence outside the truck. They said snow tracks showed the vehicle’s travel path. The pickup had damage to the passenger-side headlight and hood, and a mailbox was broken near the scene. A doorbell camera captured audio of the impact. Those details, police said, matched Joyce’s account that the truck came toward him and undercut Olman’s claim that Joyce unexpectedly moved into its path. Police have not released the complete dashcam recording in the public reports, but the affidavit’s description of the footage gives prosecutors a timeline measured in seconds, from Joyce’s approach to the truck’s turn toward him.
The case does not end with the collision. Police said Olman got out of the pickup after Joyce landed in the driveway and continued to assault him. Joyce told investigators that Olman said, “Why are you coming after me?” and then punched him in the face and kicked him. Officers arrived and found Joyce lying in the driveway, his estranged wife standing nearby and Olman on the sidewalk. The affidavit said the woman appeared to be watching and not helping. Reports have not identified her as a defendant. Her presence, however, is part of the prosecution narrative because the dispute over her vehicle keys brought the men to the same street.
Joyce’s medical condition shaped the timeline of the criminal case. He was hospitalized with a fractured pelvis, fractured ribs and spinal injuries. The original charge against Olman was assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder. Joyce remained in medical care for months before his death on March 4. The Kent County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide, finding that Joyce died from bilateral pulmonary emboli and deep vein thrombosis. Investigators tied those conditions to injuries from the collision. After that ruling, the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office authorized the second-degree murder charge.
The upgraded charge raises both factual and legal questions for the court. Prosecutors must show not only that Olman struck Joyce, but that the act meets the elements of second-degree murder and that Joyce’s death was caused by the injuries from the crash. The defense may point to Olman’s statement that he was trying to get away and to any dispute over Joyce’s movements before impact. Police, meanwhile, have described the dashcam video, the damage pattern, the snow tracks and Joyce’s own account as evidence of intent. Olman has not been convicted and is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
Joyce’s relatives have framed the case through the evidence and through his life before the crash. Family members said he went by Ryan and was a father of two daughters. His sister, Kelli Gunn, said the dashcam evidence troubled them because the attack was recorded from inside the truck. “He was gunning it,” Gunn said. She said the camera being on suggested to her that something was wrong before the impact. Police have not said publicly whether they believe the recording itself shows planning, but they have treated it as a key record of the confrontation.
A judge set bond at $250,000. Olman was arrested at the scene and later arraigned after the murder charge was filed. The next stage in Kent County will test the competing accounts against the video, medical findings and physical evidence gathered from the Rockford street.
Author note: Last updated May 21, 2026.