[Hobart, Wisc. officers Robert Etter and Stephanie Markins were killed July 22, 2002 when Tyson Kreuscher allegedly intentionally hit their squad car with his pickup truck.]
Kreuscher Had to Be Aiming At Police Car, Experts Say
Defendant said he intended to hit car, witness testifies
By Andy Nelesen, The Green Bay Press Gazette.com
About the case
Defendant: Tyson N. Kreuscher, 28, of Hobart
The victims: Hobart/Lawrence police officers Robert Etter, 56, and Stephanie Markins, 32, killed July 22
The charges: Two counts of first-degree intentional homicide
The possible penalties: Each count carries a potential sentence of life in prison
The judge: Brown County Circuit Court Judge Donald Zuidmulder.
Prosecutors: Brown County Deputy District Attorney John Luetscher and Assistant District Attorney Tammy Jo Hock
Defense team: Public defenders Michael Hanna and Tom Phillip
The trial: Began on Monday. Jury selection took two days. The entire case is expected to last about two weeks. The trial will be conducted in two phases. Jurors must first decide whether Kreuscher committed the homicides and then - after a second chunk of testimony - decide if he was sane at the time the officers were killed. If they acquit Kreuscher during the first phase, the second part is not applicable.
Experts said the Hobart/Lawrence squad car - with officers Robert Etter and Stephanie Markins inside - was a target that Tyson Kreuscher had to have aimed for.
Crash reconstructionists testified Thursday that Kreuscher could not have hit his mark more perfectly. He had to be aiming his pickup at the squad car to do as much damage as was done, they said.
Kreuscher, 28, of Hobart, is on trial in Brown County Circuit Court. He is accused of two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the July 22 deaths of Etter, 56, and Markins, 32. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Brown County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Amraen testified Kreuscher was lucid and thinking clearly when he gave a statement in the emergency room at St. Vincent Hospital later that day.
“I asked him what happened, and he told me that he had killed two people,” Amraen said. “I asked him why he did that, and he stated that, ‘It was a target.’
“He then said he wasn’t intending to kill anyone, but that he intentionally hit the car, the squad car. I asked him what he thought the outcome of that would be, and he told me he never thought about it.”
Troopers Tim Austin and Duane Meyers of the Wisconsin State Patrol analyzed the wreckage of Kreuscher’s Chevrolet pickup and the officers’ Ford Crown Victoria. They used that information to piece together a picture of how the crash happened.
Meyers said the evidence and laws of physics point to an intentional act.
“If you want to damage a vehicle the most you can damage it, you’re going to hit it like this,” Meyers said of the T-bone collision. The front of the pickup actually smashed nearly all the way through the squad car.
“There was no evidence of braking, no evidence of steering back to the left to try to get out of this maneuver,” Meyers said. “All of the evidence suggests that it was essentially a calculated maneuver to impact the car where he did.”
Meyers calculated the truck was traveling 81 mph to 90 mph at impact.
Kreuscher drove left of the center line on Wisconsin 54 before he made his turn toward the squad car, which was stopped on Bay Ridge Court in Hobart. Meyers said Kreuscher needed to jog to the left to line up on the squad.
“He could not have struck the car in the place he did by any other type of maneuver at this speed,” Meyers said. “He did a good job at what he wanted to do.”
“I think that this accident - it’s actually a crash - was a very deliberate calculated maneuver on the part of the driver. I would actually call this a skilled maneuver. The driver put a lot of thought into how to exact this particular maneuver.”
The impact moved the two cars, crushed together, about 54 feet. They also gained 3 feet elevation uphill.
Austin noted that the squad car - a Crown Victoria - was actually heavier than the pickup by about 150 pounds.
After the gavel
The prosecution plans to rest today after defense lawyers question the crash specialists.
Brown County Deputy District Attorney John Luetscher said computer-assisted presentations helped his case.
“I think the visual presentation is a great assistance to the jury. I think it helps the officers to explain - in detail - what they did and what collision reconstruction is all about.”
Tom Phillip, Kreuscher’s lawyer, said he thought some of the technical testimony was hard to understand and went longer than he expected.
“I’ll do some work tonight to try to figure it out myself.”