- Shooting suspects in custody By ED HOSKIN Of the Tribune staff TUNNEL CITY, Wis. -- Two suspects in a double-homicide shooting are expected to appear in Monroe County Circuit Court on Monday. The bodies of a mother and son from rural Tunnel City were found Friday morning. The suspects were arrested later in the day in Berlin, Wis. Saturday, police named the victims as Evelyn L. Leis, 85, and William D. Leis, 51, of 10094 Elk Road, in the town of La Grange. Preliminary autopsy results show they each were shot several times. The suspects are Jimmy L. Grimes, 18, and a 16-year-old male, both of Berlin, Wis. The 16year-old can't be named because he is a juvenile, although this would change if he were waived to adult court, authorities said. Monroe County Sheriff Dale Trowbridge confirmed Saturday that the deaths were being treated as a double homicide.
There was probably a total of nine or ten shots,'' Trowbridge said. A school bus driver found William Leis' body on the side of a road, about 50 feet from the end of the Leis driveway. His mother's body was found in the farmhouse, where they both lived. Berlin police officers arrested the suspects about nine hours later, after Monroe County authorities had asked for the help of surrounding agencies in finding a black Ford Mustang seen near Tunnel City in the days before the shootings. Police had a license plate number because of an earli er traffic stop that had been made in Monroe County, Police Sgt. Jason Westpfahl said. Trowbridge said both suspects were brought to the Coulee Region. Grimes is being held at the Monroe County Jail, and the 16-year-old is being held at a juvenile detention center in La Crosse. One of the men had been interviewed as of Saturday afternoon, but because Trowbridge wasn't present at the interview, he didn't know if the suspect had been cooperative.
We're still investigating,'' Trowbridge said. We' re going to try and work through the night. We're trying to process evidence and re-interview people.'' There was still no word Saturday on a possible motive. Westpfahl had said Friday he didn't know if anything was taken from the farmhouse. Not to my knowledge, but we're not sure either way,'' he said. Evelyn Leis, the mother of six children, was born and raised in Norwalk, Wis., said one of her daughters, Alice Hill. A longtime member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Tomah, Wis., Evelyn Leis was an independent lady who loved gardening and fishing. Her husband died six years ago. William Leis was a veteran of the Vietnam War who never married, Hill said. He was vice president of a power company called Uninterruptible Power Products.
He was quiet,'' Hill said. He kept himself to himself somewhat, but he was a very likable person. He had no children, but he loved children, and was loved by children.'' Hill said the circumstances of her mother's and brother 's deaths are much harder to bear than if they had been killed in a car accident, for example. This was a malicious act to two innocent, loving, caring people,'' Hill said. There are a lot of whys. I hope we get those answers soon.''
Bus driver relives day he found body By JOEL HANNAHS Of the Tribune staff SPARTA, Wis. -- With Halloween only a few weeks awa y, Tomah School District bus driver Jeff Hill at first thought what he saw lying alongside the road on the morning of Oct. 8, 1999, might be a scarecrow. Since he had children on the bus, he decided to park the vehicle some distance away and walk to where the figure lay face-down and with one shoe missing, he said. The man's head was bloodstained, Hill testified at the Monroe County Courthouse Tuesday. His legs were together, his feet were extended, his hands were underneath his chest and he was face down,'' Hill said. I would say two-thirds of his body was in the road.'' He had found the body of 51-year-old William D. Leis. When State Patrol Inspector Jim Vieth arrived -- expecting to see a bus accident because Hill had been careful about what he said in the children's presence while making the emergency call -- he determined Leis had been dead for some time. Later that morning, he and another officer entered the house at 10094 Elk Road in La Grange and found the body of 81-year-old Evelyn L. Leis in the bathroom. They knew immediately that she was a homicide victim, Vieth said. Both people had been shot. Jimmy L. Grimes, 18, of Berlin, Wis., accused of committing the slayings with 17-year-old Daniel F. Cerney, listened to the testimony of nine witnesses on the second day of his trial on two counts of first degree intentional homicide and other charges. The Marathon County jury is sequestered in a Sparta hotel, and the trial's opening arguments were heard Monday in Wausau. Testimony will continue today in Sparta. Cerney has already been tried and convicted of the same crimes. In a motion hearing before the day's testimony, Assistant District Attorney Elisabeth Andrews Mueller noted that defense attorney Timothy Gaskell of Westby, in his opening arguments, outlined a strategy of blaming Cerney, which is interesting, because Dan (Cerney) blamed everything on Jimmy (Grimes) during his trial.'' Gaskell reinforced that strategy with his brief cross-examination of Monroe County Detective Eric Matson. Under questioning from a prosecutor, Matson described dozens of items found in the Oct. 8 search of Grimes' residence. But Gaskell's questioning pointed out that Cerney's high school identification card also was found there. When officers entered the Berlin residence, they found garbage, cans, bottles, pizza boxes and bullet holes in the walls, but not a single item of furniture, Matson said. There were televisions, a videocassette recorder and a black plastic bag containing several rifles and knives. Prosecutors Mueller and state assistant attorney Judy Schultz called several neighbors to testify that they saw a black Ford Mustang being driven near the Leis' home Oct. 6 and 7. The car matches the description of one Grimes drives, authorities said. PPP Every half-hour, 40 minutes, I saw it driving by,'' said neighbor Greg Von Haden. The car was distinctive enough that, at one point, he saw the partial plate number 255 and remembered it, reporting it to officers after the deaths were discovered. Gary Von Haden testified that he saw the black car in the driveway of the Leis residence about 4 p.m., and another neighbor, Perry Lamb, said he also saw the car backing down the hill near the driveway and turning around. That was about 4:15 p.m ., he said. Debbie Abbott, who raised Grimes from age 2 for his birth mother -- her sister -- but never adopted him, testified that he arrived at her home, about five miles from the crime scene, between 4: 30 and 4:45 p.m. Grimes told her he was not feeling well and was going to his Berlin residence, she said. At the Elk Road scene, officers collected seven .22 caliber casings from the roadway and later found a .357 caliber handgun in the nearby cornfield, officers testified.
Burglary plot supported in testimony at Grimes trial By JOEL HANNAHS Of the Tribune staff SPARTA, Wis. -- The day before William and Evelyn Leis were killed, Jimmy Grimes had spent the day driving the neighborhood with three girls plotting a burglary, one of the girls testified Wednesday. Two acquaintances who said they plotted thefts with Grimes, now 19, testified Wednesday at his double homicide trial at the Monroe County Courthouse. Former co-defendant Daniel Cerney, now 17, was convicted in May for the crime. On Oct. 6, 1999, Crystal Lancaster had only known Grimes for a few weeks, but was hanging out at his place in Berlin, Wis ., as a runaway and had ridden with him in his black Ford Mustang to the Tomah area. She said that he talked about the home of someone he had worked for as a burglary target, and the group ended up driving by the house about 10 times that day, confirming testimony from neighbors earlier in the trial. At one point, Grimes pointed a gun out the window and said he had perfect aim.'' The group convinced Lancaster to approach the house and try to get a ride into town, while the others could hang back and burglarize the place after the owner was gone. She testified that she went to the house and pretended to use the phone but did not ask for a ride. When she got back to the Mustang, she told the others she had followed the plan, but the woman would not give her a ride. Grimes, with an accomplice, is accused of returning to the house at 10094 Elk Road in La Grange the next day and slaying 51 -year-old William Leis and his 85-year-old mother, Evelyn, early Oct. 8. Justin Lenski, now in a military-styled juvenile program for his admitted role in an attempted robbery of a fast food restaurant, testified Grimes did most of the planning for that failed robbery. A group of four teens had parked and three of them walked across a field wearing ski masks or nylon over their faces, but were thwarted when the woman closed up for the night a few minutes before they got there. They had brought duct tape with the intent of tying her up, because they thought there would be $26,000 available at the restaurant. Cerney talked Lenski out of going along when the pair went to Tomah, but Lenski said he saw Cerney carrying a rifle wrapped in a black leather jacket. They were gone about three or four hours, and when they returned Cerney was excited and Grimes was quiet, he said.
Oh, my God, I just shot two people,'' Cerney said, according to Lenski's testimony. Later, he amended it: I mean me and Jimmy just shot two people. I hope we don't get caught.'' Attorneys questioned Lenski repeatedly about those words because his statements have not always included all of that phrasing. Lenski also testified that he overheard Grimes say some thing about burning bloody clothes, but under cross-examination said he had never mentioned that to officers or in the Cerney trial . Lenski and Lancaster both testified that they saw the pair bringing in several guns out of the trunk after getting back Oc t. 8. Lenski, who ended every phrase with ma'am'' or sir,'' also saw them bring in a bag of apples. Lancaster testified that on O ct. 6, after being thwarted in the initial plan to burglarize the Leis residence, the group of Grimes, Lancaster and two other girls entered two other houses in the rural area, stealing a TV, about $100, change and knives. In other testimony, David Larsen of the Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation testified that at least one of the shots that struck William Leis was from no further away than five feet. His body was found partially on the roadway, and all of the nearby shell casings were from a semiautomatic .22-caliber rifle that matched one seized from Cerney's home. Analysis of the actual bullet fragments is also consistent with the gun, but not conclusive, he said. All of the casings found inside the house, near where the body of Evelyn Leis was found huddled on the bathroom floor, matched the bolt-action .22-caliber rifle that was seized. Through the testimony of Gerald Kotajarvi, latent fingerprint examiner for the DCI, prosecutors introduced dozens of photographs of the crime scene, and jurors looked them over one-by-one while the courtroom fell silent for nearly 30 minutes Wednesday morning. Grimes showed no emotion as photos of Evelyn's blood stained body were held up for jurors to see. Kotajarvi testified that part of the bathroom door latch had been broken off and was found lying on the bathroom floor near her body . Jurors were actively interested and passed in questions for several of the witnesses: Could William's body have been lying on any cartridge shells before he was moved? Kotajarvi was unsure; Was anyone at the Berlin residence drinking or using drugs that day? Lenski said they were not; Did Cerney live with Grimes? No; How long were the pair gone? About three to four hours; How many people typically hung out at the Berlin place? Often 13 or 14; Were there footprints in the cornfield where a handgun was found? No; Did any of the doors in which Leis kept some guns lock? No, said Kotajarvi.
Published on Wednesday, June 28, 2000
Grimes guilty on 14 counts, including homicide By JOEL HANNAHS / Of the Tribune staff SPARTA, Wis. -- Jimmy Lee Grimes looked at the jury as the judge read verdicts finding him guilty of murder, but his face remained as impassive as it had throughout the seven-day trial. But in the back row of the courtroom, the woman who raised him as her child from the age of 2 wiped tears from her eyes while her husband placed his arm around her shoulders. Grimes, now 19, will be sentenced within 30 days on 14 criminal counts, but the date of the hearing has not been set. The jury returned guilty verdicts on all four counts of homicide, but two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide were dismissed after the verdict because they are redundant to the two counts of first-degree intentional homicide. In all, Grimes faced 21 counts covering accusations from Sept 30 to Oct. 8, 1999. Defense attorney Timothy Gaskell of West by spent the early part of his closing argument dealing with some of those charges, and the jury returned innocent verdicts on five counts: three of soliciting a child to commit a felony and two of armed burglary. Grimes, with an accomplice, was charged with shooting his mentor, 51-year-old William Leis, and his 85-year-old mother, Evelyn Leis, at their home at 10094 Elk Road, La Grange. Their bodies were found the morning of Oct. 8, and Grimes and Daniel F. Cerney were arrested that day in Berlin, Wis. Cerney, now 17, was convicted in May and will be sentenced Friday at the Monroe County Courthouse. He testified for the prosecution in Grimes' trial. Unlike Cerney, Grimes never said a word in his defense, and never gave a statement to officers. Gaskell called just one witness to point out Cerney's involvement with a gang, but relied on cross examination and his closing argument to sway the jury. The case went to the jury at about 3:20 p.m. Tuesday, and the panel, brought in from Marathon County due to pre-trial publicity, took about 5 hours and 40 minutes to consider 42 options on 21 counts. They notified Judge Michael McAlpine that they had reached a verdict about 8:55 p.m., only moments before he planned to check with them to see when they wished to quit for the night. In addition to the homicide charges, Grimes was found guilty of three counts of soliciting a minor to commit a felony, one count of robbery, one of theft of a firearm, and several counts of burglary. In closing for the prosecution, Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Elisabeth Andrews-Mueller took the jury chronologically through the days that led up to the killings, portraying Grimes as desperate for money, with a $25,900 debt still outstanding on his black Ford Mustang. She noted that as Grimes and his friends plotted an attempted robbery on a fast-food restaurant in Tomah Sept. 30, the amount they expected to find was $26,000. She reminded the jury of an Oct. 5 theft of a gun used in the attack and, the next day, how Grimes and the others planned to burglarize the Leis residence even as they broke into two neighbors' houses. The prosecution's theory is that Grimes stole a second gun from the Leis barn Oct. 7, when his car was seen parked in the farm's driveway that afternoon. William Leis was shot nine times, but only seven of the bullets were found. One shot that went through his body and was not found could have been fired from the bolt-action .22 that Grimes carried, Andrews-Mueller said. That gun was the more powerful of the two, according to trial testimony. Seven of the shots came from a semi-automatic. She stressed the reliability of the juvenile witnesses, pointing out that the crime scene and testimony by officers bolstered much of their testimony. Juveniles testified a pistol had been thrown into a cornfield, glass had been broken out on the Leis' home and the guns had been hidden in Grimes' basement. If Grimes had no intent or plan to kill the Leises, Andrews-Mueller said, why did he and companion Daniel Cerney go to the house at all when they could have just stolen guns from the barn? Why did they go to the residence at night, when they knew the Leises would be home? Why did they bring guns, why did they load the guns, why did all their friends think they were going to kill someone?
These aren't accidents,'' Andrews-Mueller said. These are intentional, deliberate acts against people who did nothing but try to help this kid. She recalled a statement by Cerney, who testified against Grimes after being convicted in the killings in May, that the plan was to lure William Leis out, shoot him and then kill Leis' mother. That's the only statement that's consistent with all the physical evidence,'' Andrews-Mueller said. She called Grimes the main reason'' why the Leises are no longer alive. But defense attorney Gaskell countered by offering the jury several theories on what could have happened on the night of the slayings, including one in which Cerney was mainly responsible. Gaskell contended the pair had no plan or intent to kill the Leises, pointing to statements the two made to friends when they returned from Tomah that something had gone wrong.'' That statement indicates they never planned to kill, only to rob, he said. He argued it was Cerney who shot William Leis after Grimes lured him out of the house. Both then went to the back of the home, but it was again Cerney who shot through the window, striking Evelyn Leis before she reached the bathroom. Grimes then reached through the window and entered, to get the money, Gaskell said. He attacked Cerney's credibility on the witness stand and the credibility of the main juvenile witness, saying the girl tried to make Cerney look better because they were friends. He recalled statements about Cerney's involvement with a gang, and testimony that Cerney had told others, Oh my God, I just killed two people, I hope I don't get caught.
Dan Cerney's been convicted,'' Gaskell said. Ladies and gentlemen, they've already convicted the right guy. In her rebuttal, Andrews-Mueller dismissed Gaskell's theory as a crazy story'' that, even if true, would still make Grimes guilty of aiding and abetting in the killings. Don't let him get out of this,'' she told the jurors. He's responsible.
Teen gets life for murders By JOEL HANNAHS Of the Tribune staff SPARTA, Wis. -- Daniel F. Cerney will be 62 years old before parole officials can consider whether he should have a second chance at freedom. The Berlin, Wis., teen was sentenced Friday in Monroe County Court to two concurrent life sentences for his role in the Oct. 8 murders of William Leis, 51, and his 85-year-old mother, Evelyn Leis. It makes him eligible for parole after 45 years. It's probably one of the most vicious crimes this court has seen,'' Monroe County Judge Steven L. Abbott said. Cerney, now 17, and Jimmy Lee Grimes, now 19, lured William Leis from his rural Tomah house by telling him that Grime s' car had broken down. They shot Leis nine times, according to trial testimony, then Grimes broke into the house and shot Evelyn Leis in the bathroom as she tried to call the police. Abbott said he decided to grant Cerney the possibility of parole because he believed Grimes was the instigator. But he stressed that Cerney not only had the option not to commit the crime, but could have stopped Grimes by simply not accompanying him. Grimes had shown an unwillingness to commit crimes alone.
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- TOMAH, Wis. Evelyn L. Leis, 85, of rural Tomah, died Friday, October 8, 1999, at her home. She was born December 2 7, 1913, to John and Louise (Weidl) Brunner of Norwalk, Wis. She was baptized, confirmed, and married in St. John Baptist Catholic Church of Summit, Wis. Evelyn was a long-standing and faithful member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Tomah, Wis. On August 13, 1939, Evelyn was united in marriage to William J. Leis. They farmed and raised their children in the Wilton and Tomah area. Evelyn is survived by her children, Doris (Cecil) Long of Salt Lake City, Utah, Alice (Jeff) Hill of Longmont, Colorado, Robert (Linda) Leis of Webster, Minn., and Mary (John) Rezin of Tomah, Wis.; seven grandchildren, Carrie (James) Dodge, Sandra Long, Linda (Mark) Feller, all of Salt Lake City, Utah, Scott (Lisa) Hill of Fort Collins, Colorado, Kris Hill of Durango, Colorado, Laura and Andrea Leis of Webster, Minn.; five great-grandchildren, Shane, Andrew, Austin, Zachary, and Sydney. She is also survived by one sister, Margaret (Sylvester) Dinger of La Crosse, Wis.; one brother, Glen (Edith) Brunner of Norwalk, Wis.; and very special friends, Evie Engler of La Crosse, Wis., and Doris Lamp of Tomah, Wis . She was preceded in death by her infant son, James, and husband William. She died on the same day as her son, William David. Evelyn was greatly loved and will be greatly missed by her family and friends. She loved life and lived for her family. She especially liked family gatherings, her flowers and garden, fishing, and her little dog, Molly. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, October 12, 1999, at 10:30 a.m. at the St. Mary's Catholic Church in Tomah. Rev. Richard Dickman and Rev. Dale Klitzke will officiate. Burial will follow in the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery in Tomah. Family and friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday, October 11, 1999, at the Ninneman-Steele Funeral Home in Tomah. St. Mary's PCCW will lead rosary at 4 p.m. Monday evening. Family and friends may also call Tuesday from 9 a.m. until 10:15 a.m. at the Ninneman-Steele Funeral Home. The family requests memorials be given to the Serenity House of Hospice Touch in Tomah, or the Monroe County Humane Society.
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1913 - 1999 (85 years)
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