Janesville, WI: Jurors convict Wisconsin sex offender of strangling, stabbing neighbor, her 2 teenage children

TODD RICHMOND
Associated Press Writer
February 2, 2010 | 5:53 p.m.


JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) — A convicted sex offender was found guilty Tuesday of strangling and stabbing his neighbor and her two teenage children in their trailer home in southern Wisconsin.

Jurors deliberated for only about 90 minutes before convicting James Koepp of Janesville of three counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of 38-year-old Danyetta Lentz, her 17-year-old daughter, Nicole, and her 14-year-old son, Scott. Koepp faces mandatory life in prison when he is sentenced April 27.

District Attorney David O'Leary said the victims' DNA on Koepp's clothes and his DNA under Lentz and Nicole's fingernails was crucial in convincing jurors. Koepp could not explain how it got there, O'Leary said.

The jurors and Koepp's attorneys left the courthouse after the verdict without talking to reporters.

The verdicts close a gruesome case that has hung over Janesville, a blue collar city of about 40 miles south of Madison, for more than three years.

Lentz's father, Russell Lucht, found the bodies of his daughter and grandchildren in the trailer the family shared on the city's outskirts in January 2007. All three had been strangled and stabbed multiple times. Scott's room had been ransacked, and the trailer was splattered with blood.

Detectives quickly focused on Koepp, now 51, who lived behind the Lentzes in the same trailer park. Nicole's boyfriend told investigators he talked to Nicole on the night of the murders and she told him "Jim" was in the trailer.

Koepp was convicted in 1983 of sexually assaulting two women at a substance abuse center where he once spent time. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and required to register as a sex offender for life.

Forensic analysts testified during the trial that Koepp's DNA was found under Lentz and Nicole's fingernails and DNA from blood on Koepp's clothing matched all three victims.

O'Leary also pointed out during his closing arguments that Koepp first told investigators he didn't know the family and wasn't at their trailer the night they died. He later acknowledged he went there to talk to Lentz about an affair they had.

Koepp skipped an interview with detectives and tried to flee the state four days after the slayings, leading sheriff's deputies on a high-speed chase for which he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Koepp left a voicemail for his brother hours before the chase, saying "I didn't want to hurt nobody. ... I didn't want to hurt them."

O'Leary said Koepp killed Lentz to keep her from telling his wife about their affair. His wife divorced him after his arrest.

Koepp's attorney, Walter Isaacson, countered during his closing argument there was no reason to assume Lentz was going to talk about the affair and no reason for Koepp to kill her when her children were home. He claimed robbers killed the family.

Lucht fought back tears as the verdicts were read.

"It's been a long three years, a very long three years," he told reporters. "It's been long. It's been hard. It's over with. It's done. Thank you very much."