Although physical evidence was scarce, an Oconto County jury Thursday found a rural Shawano man guilty of two counts of homicide.
The jury deliberated almost five hours before announcing Daniel Schmidt, 30, was guilty of murdering his ex-mistress, Kimberly Rose, and her brother, Leonard Marsh, in 2009.
Family and friends hugged one another, wiping away tears after hearing the jury’s decision.
“I think the victims were pleased with the verdict,” said Assistant Attorney General Richard Dufour, who prosecuted the case. “It’s hard to have a lot of jubilation. There are two people that are dead and there’s another person whose life is probably going to be spent in prison, so I don’t know if there’s jubilation, but there’s relief justice has been done.”
Schmidt showed little emotion on hearing the verdict, but his wife, Stephanie, a key witness in the trial, put her face in her hands and cried.
The prosecution built its case on mostly circumstantial evidence that centered on Schmidt’s desire to stop Rose from disrupting his marriage. There was no DNA or fingerprints to tie Schmidt to the home the siblings shared in the town of Gillett. No blood was found on clothing Schmidt was wearing the day of the murders and no gun found.
“Many cases are circumstantial,” Dufour said. “This was certainly more than others, but we felt confident there was enough evidence to convict him, and obviously the jury agreed.”
In his closing arguments, Dufour told how Schmidt talked with his wife about getting rid of his .20-gauge shotgun days after the murders. He told police he sold the gun. He also brought a .410 shotgun to police. It was a gun he had borrowed previously from a friend and asked his friend to lend it to him again so he could turn it in.
“He continued to lie and continued the deception. He did that … because that gun was the murder weapon,” Dufour said.
While the defense attorneys claimed Schmidt had no motive to kill Marsh, Dufour disagreed.
“He knew Leo was a potential witness, so he has to make sure that when he takes care of his problem — when he takes care of Kim — there isn’t someone left to see that it’s him,” Dufour told the jury.
The verdict was announced at 7 p.m. Dufour said he was pleased the jury spent the time necessary to evaluate the case.
“I believe they came to a verdict that’s just for the victims in this case,” he said.
Defense attorney Bradley Schraven said he planned to appeal the case but declined to comment further. A date for sentencing was not set.
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