News 06.14.16
14 June 2016 News
Opening statements are scheduled for this morning in a cold case murder trial in Fond du Lac County Circuit Court. Dennis Brantner, an over the road trucker from Kenosha is charged with first degree murder in the 1990 death of 18 year old Berit Beck. The Sturdevant teenager disappeared after stopping at the Forest Mall in July of 1990. Her body was found in a roadside ditch near Waupun. Brantner was arrested after new DNA technology matched his fingerprints to prints found in Beck’s van. The jury was selected Monday afternoon. The trial is scheduled to last three weeks.
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One person is severely injured after coming in contact with a boat propeller while on Lake Winnebago. Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Dobyns says the incident happened Sunday afternoon around 3:45 p.m. about 3/4th of a mile north of Fond Du Lac towards the west shore. Dobyns says a 32-year-old Fond du Lac man had jumped off the back of a boat to get onto a tube being pulled by the boat. At the time the throttle on the boat was still engaged, causing the propeller to be in motion. When the man jumped, he landed on the propeller. He was transported to shore by the Fond du Lac Sheriff’s Water Patrol and Rescue then flown to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah with a severe leg injury. The City of Fond du Lac paramedics also assisted at the scene.
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One person is killed and one injured following a one vehicle accident in Waushara County. The accident happened Sunday morning just past 7:00 a.m. on 26th Road, southeast of County Road W, in the Town of Saxeville. Investigation shows the vehicle had left the roadway and struck several trees. A male driver was flown to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah. A male passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. Names have not yet been released. The accident remains under investigation.
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A rural Rhinelander teenager will spend 23 years in prison for killing her mother and stepfather. Eighteen-year-old Ashlee Martinson was sentenced Friday. After serving her prison time, Martinson will be on extended supervision for 17 years. Oneida County District Attorney Michael Schiek asked the judge to sentence Martinson to 40 years in prison. Defense attorneys argued for eight years in prison. Daily-Herald Media reports Judge Michael Bloom said Martinson had a choice, despite the abusive environments she was forced to live in. Court documents say Martinson shot her stepfather, 37-year-old Thomas Ayers, and then stabbed her mother, 40-year-old Jennifer Ayers, more than 30 times. The killings happened in March of 2015, when Martinson was 17. Martinson told authorities she had been mentally and verbally abused by her stepfather.
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The Legislature’s budget committee approves $250,000 to educate the public about Wisconsin’s voter photo identification requirement. The state Government Accountability Board asked the Joint Finance Committee in April to release the money. The GAB suspended its voter ID outreach campaign in 2012 after a court challenge blocked the requirement. A federal appellate court ultimately upheld the law in 2014 and it was in effect for this past February’s primary and the April 6 general election. Finance committee member Rep. Chris Taylor and the League of Women Voters asked GAB to re-launch the education campaign, saying turnout could have been higher if more people understood the requirement. The committee voted unanimously Monday to release the money and allow the state’s new elections commission to implement the campaign.
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Average salaries for prison staff in Wisconsin have dropped almost 13 percent when adjusted for inflation since 2009. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the state’s correctional officers and guards earned an average, inflation-adjusted salary of $41,770 in 2015. That’s a drop of more than $6,000 compared with what they made six years before. Meanwhile, prisons across the state have been facing problems with staff shortages and filling vacant positions. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections says more than 500 correctional officer and sergeant positions are vacant.
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