Thomas C. Niesen will be sentenced Nov. 6 for the murder 33 years ago of 19-year-old Kathleen Leichtman of Milwaukee.

Despite the charge of first-degree murder requiring a mandatory life sentence, attorneys in the case and the victim's family will have a chance at the time of sentencing to speak again.

For nine days in late August and early September, 12 Fond du Lac County citizens ranging from a farmer to retirees sat in a jury box and heard the details of how Fond du Lac Police Department detectives determined the 54-year-old Ashwaubenon man was responsible for killing Leichtman by slashing her throat early the morning of July 15, 1976, and leaving her to die at a location along Rolling Meadows Drive on Fond du Lac's south side.

Leichtman had come to Fond du Lac to start dancing at The Other Place, 208 N. Main St.

Five members of the Niesen jury agreed to talk to The Reporter about how they reached a guilty verdict after one afternoon of deliberation.

Deliberations

Kristine Newhouse of Fond du Lac said she knew nothing about the case when she reported for jury duty at the end of August. She first realized the importance of the case when Fond du Lac County District Attorney Dan Kaminsky delivered his opening statement.

"I don't think I felt any pressure until we actually deliberated," Newhouse said. "At that point, I thought if I do believe he is guilty, this is something that is going to affect him the rest of his life. I better be right."

Newhouse said she was confident in her decision but wanted to know more about evidence in the case.

Numerous motion hearings were held prior to the trial that involved Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge Dale English determining what could or could not be discussed in front of the jury.

Newhouse said she met with Fond du Lac Police Department Detective Steve Kaufman after the verdict to find out more.

"It would have been nice to have some sort of idea what (Niesen) was capable of," Newhouse said. "Personally, I was confident in my decision to begin with."

Some of the evidence jurors could not hear included complete statements Niesen made to detectives during the initial interview, a report of Niesen choking his own sister in regard to a pastry, a police report detailing an altercation in which Niesen held a knife to someone's throat and a 2008 Brown County child abuse conviction that required Niesen to submit a DNA sample.

How law enforcement obtained Niesen's DNA and why it took 33 years to bring him to trial weighed on the jurors during deliberation.

"The only thing is we couldn't understand how they got his DNA," said juror Donna Draves of Fond du Lac. "We knew he had to have done something bad to have his DNA."

Defense attorney Timothy Geary did not want jurors to know about the 2008 conviction. Newhouse said that even though it would not have changed the outcome of the trial, people wanted to know about the DNA.

"We actually went around the table and said things they take DNA for," Newhouse said. "They don't take DNA for shoplifting, so we said rape, sexual abuse or things like that."

Lack of information

All five jurors said they wanted to know the whole story.

"I was upset a little bit that so much was kept from us. (Judge English) would always make us leave," Newhouse said. "We spent more time out than in. We would come back in, and I would truly feel like we were getting half of the story."

Juror Calvin J. Greenfield of Waupun said the lack of information was evident when Wisconsin Assistant Attorney General Dennis Krueger played an interview Niesen had with detectives Mike Mueller and Kaufman.

"We all said there was a lot of stuff we didn't hear. You could tell from the recording," Greenfield said. "Why couldn't they just play the whole thing?"

Even though the interview was edited, it helped Newhouse come to her verdict.

"It seemed to me that (Niesen) was very forthcoming in talking with them until it was mentioned about Fond du Lac — until they let him know what they were there for," Newhouse said. "Then, all of the sudden, (Niesen) did not remember anything."

Juror Randy Haen of Rosendale equated the trial to putting a puzzle together.

"As the case went along, (the attorneys) told you bits and pieces," Haen said. "We learned afterwards there was quite a bit of stuff that they didn't tell us that would have been a heck of a lot more helpful (in making) the decision easier."

Key testimony

For Newhouse and Draves and juror Lori Smith of Waupun, the testimony of Niesen's ex-wife, Ja Cee P. Crull, helped arrange the circumstantial evidence to prove Niesen committed the crime.

"She kind of put the story together to make it what we thought," Smith said.

Crull, who was once a dancer at The Other Place, testified she married Niesen in 1986. On the witness stand, Crull stated that at one point, Niesen told her in a conversation that the last time he was at The Other Place something went horribly wrong, a woman ended up dead and he threw the weapon off the bridge.

Draves said Crull's testimony about how the case changed her personal life was convincing.

"We just could not picture her making it up when (coming forward) was going to do so much to her family," Draves said.

The jury returned from lunch on Sept. 2 and began deliberating by taking a vote.

"They went around the table and nine said guilty," Haen said.

"I thought, 'Wait a minute. I'm not going to send a guy to jail just in the first 20 minutes or half-hour.' I told the other jurors they had to sell me on it," he later added.

Haen made it clear he was not saying Niesen was innocent but wanted to look at the evidence again and talk about the aspects of the trial.

"You just don't make the decision and run with it," Haen said. "You talk about it and you make sure everybody is on the same page so we're all speaking the same language."

Smith said that by the end of Sept. 2, everyone had the guilty verdict in mind but decided to go home, get some rest and take a vote the next day.

The jurors returned the next day, talked briefly and then returned to the courtroom with a guilty verdict — a decision that will send Niesen to prison for life.