Shelley v. State

278 N.W.2d 251, 89 Wis. 2d 263, 1979 Wisc. App. LEXIS 2660
CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedMarch 12, 1979
Docket77-845-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 278 N.W.2d 251 (Shelley v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shelley v. State, 278 N.W.2d 251, 89 Wis. 2d 263, 1979 Wisc. App. LEXIS 2660 (Wis. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

HANSEN, J.

The defendant, Kevin Shelley, was convicted of first degree murder, party to a crime, in violation of secs. 940.01 (1) and 939.05, Stats., and armed burglary, party to a crime, in violation of secs. 943.10(1) (a) *267 and (2) (a), and 939.05, Stats., following a jury trial. The defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment on the murder conviction, and a concurrent term not to exceed twenty years on the armed burglary conviction.

The defendant and his codefendant, Joel Conerton, were charged with the murder of Robert Leitner, guard at the Milwaukee County Zoo, and with armed burglary of the zoo premises. The killing and the burglary took place in the early morning hours of June 1, 1976, at a time when there was about $74,000 in the safe in the zoo administration building.

The murder victim was seen by a fellow employee at the zoo at 12:30 a.m. on June 1st. This same employee found the victim at about 4:30 a.m. after the victim had been shot with a shotgun in his upper right chest and hip. The victim died as a result of hemorrhaging due to the shotgun wound to his chest. The victim’s body showed bruising to the left side of his forehead and near his right eyebrow.

The telephone in the zoo administration office had been pulled from the wall. Two shotgun shells were found lying on the floor near the victim’s body. A key fitting the lock on the zoo gate was found with five shotgun shells near the zoo. Also found near the zoo was an acetylene torch, which a welding supply dealer testified he had sold to codefendant Conerton. In addition to the acetylene tank, a sledge hammer and other items were found.

A parking lot attendant at the zoo since 1970, Thomas Brittain, testified that during 1975 and 1976 he had discussed with codefendant Conerton the robbing of the zoo, and that, in January of 1976, codefendant Conerton told Brittain that defendant Shelley would join in the robbery. Brittain and codefendant Conerton discussed the location and construction of the safe in the zoo administration building. Brittain further testified that he and codefendant Conerton, in the spring of 1976, went *268 to a welding store where Conerton purchased acetylene tanks.

In April of 1976, codefendant Conerton accompanied Brittain to the zoo where Brittain was to pick up his payroll check in the administration building. They left the building through a back door, passing through the general office area, the cashroom and the women’s custodial room which is next to the room where the safe was located. Two weeks later, Conerton again accompanied Brittain to the zoo, at which time Conerton inspected the lock on the rear door of the administration building.

In May of 1976, codefendant Conerton told Brittain that he (Conerton) and defendant Shelley were going to the zoo at night to check on the guards to determine if there was any set route they traveled. Defendants Con-erton and Shelley did go to the zoo twice at night, hiding in bushes and watching the administration building.

About one week before the murder and burglary, Con-erton showed Brittain a semiautomatic shotgun, which Conerton had in his basement and which he had gotten from defendant Shelley. Conerton told Brittain that he and Shelley were going to take the shotgun with them to the zoo break-in.

On May 30, 1976, Brittain called Conerton at about 7 p.m. Conerton asked Brittain how much money Brittain had taken in at the parking lot at the zoo that day. He estimated parking lot receipts that day at $5,000 to $6,-000 and the maximum for zoo receipts that day at about $25,000. The next day, May 31st, at about 7 p.m., Brit-tain and Conerton talked again. Conerton asked if Brit-tain had seen a Brinks truck come in that day. Brittain answered that he had not. They again discussed zoo receipts for the day, estimating the zoo receipts on May 31st at another $25,000. Brittain asked Conerton if he and Shelley were going through with the break-in. Con-erton responded that you could never tell until you did if you were actually going to do it.

*269 On June 1st, 1976, at about 2:15 a.m., Brittain drove by the zoo. At the intersection of 97th Street and West Wisconsin Avenue, Brittain saw defendant Shelley and codefendant Conerton crossing the street. Conerton asked if anyone was with Brittain, to which Brittain answered no. Shelley and Conerton got into Brittain’s auto; Shelley in the back seat, Conerton in the front passenger’s seat. Before Conerton got in the car, he went across the street and returned with a shotgun with a sawed off barrel, which he held as he sat in the front seat of the car.

Brittain asked what happened. Codefendant Conerton said things had gone bad. Conerton then turned to defendant Shelley and said, “Kevin, you had better start thinking about what you are going to do if the police come to your home.” The three then drove to the east side of Milwaukee, looking for a place where they could dump the shotgun in the Milwaukee River. When they got to a bridge on Capitol Drive, Brittain stopped the car and Conerton got out with the shotgun. That bridge was not over the river so Conerton got back in the car with the gun. Later they stopped in the parking lot near the Humane Society building. Conerton got out with the shotgun and returned without it.

Brittain testified that Shelley and Conerton appeared upset because they had to leave all their tools behind at the zoo. While they were driving around, the car was stopped so Shelley’s jacket could be dropped into a sewer. Conerton took Shelley’s shoes to put in a trash can, a trash pickup being scheduled for the next day. Brit-tain then dropped codefendant Conerton off about one block from his house and dropped defendant Shelley off at 76th Street and West Wisconsin Avenue. Conerton told Brittain to call him the next day to let him know what was happening at the zoo.

Thomas Brittain testified that he went to the police with the information on the burglary and murder at the zoo. On June 11, 1976, Brittain gave a statement to the *270 district attorney regarding his part in the incident. In exchange for Brittain’s testimony in the prosecution of Shelley and Conerton, the district attorney agreed to charge Brittain only with one count of burglary for his part in the scheme to rob the safe at the zoo.

After being fully advised of his constitutional rights, defendant Shelley gave statements to Milwaukee police detectives, two oral statements and one written. In these statements Shelley said that he and codefendant Coner-ton went to the zoo at about 9:00 p.m/ on May 31st. They entered the grounds using a gate to which Conerton had a key, put the trunk with their tools in it in some bushes and then left. They returned some time later and tried to move the tools to the administration building, but, because the trunk was heavy, left it in the bushes, intending to go to the administration building, overpower the guard and then use his vehicle to bring the safecracking tools to the building.

They entered the police room of the zoo building by removing an outer window and reaching- in to unlock the door. They waited in the men’s room. Shelley held the sawed off shotgun. Conerton held a baseball bat.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
278 N.W.2d 251, 89 Wis. 2d 263, 1979 Wisc. App. LEXIS 2660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shelley-v-state-wisctapp-1979.