Adds details from complaint

MADISON — A Wisconsin man who made headlines earlier this year for allegedly running down deer with a snowmobile was charged Wednesday in a pedestrian’s hit-and-run death five years ago.

Prosecutors charged Rory Kuenzi, 25, with hit-and-run and vehicular homicide while under the influence in Kevin McCoy’s death in 2004. Both counts are felonies.

Together they carry a maximum penalty of $200,000 in fines and 65 years in prison.

McCoy’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Kuenzi in 2006 that is still pending. Their attorney, Steven Toney, said they’re pleased with the charges but the case is far from over.

“We can’t say the family has closure or feels vindicated here. There’s no convictions,” Toney said. “There’s a lot of work to be done here. But they’re definitely feeling much better now that charges have been brought.”

Kuenzi’s attorneys, listed in online court records as Troy Nielsen and Jefren E. Olsen, didn’t immediately return messages Wednesday.

Kuenzi; his brother, Robby; and Nicholas Hermes were charged with multiple counts of mistreating animals in January in one of Wisconsin’s most horrendous animal thrill-kill cases. Prosecutors accused the men of using snowmobiles to corral deer in Waupaca County and then run them down. Four deer were killed.

Judges eventually dismissed the animal mistreatment charges against the brothers, saying that because they were hunting at the time animal cruelty charges didn’t apply.

They both still face multiple hunting violations, though. Hermes still faces animal mistreatment charges as well as a number of hunting violations.

Kuenzi is currently serving two years at Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution because the thrill-kill charges violated conditions of his probation for domestic abuse.

According to the criminal complaint in McCoy’s death, Waupaca County investigators found McCoy’s body in a Farmington ditch in October 2004 near a debris field of broken glass and vehicle parts. They determined a lens in the field came from a Chevrolet S-10 truck.

Detectives learned McCoy, 20, and Kuenzi had attended a party the night before McCoy’s body was found. Toney said they argued over a woman and McCoy decided to walk home.

Kuenzi allegedly told investigators he drove an S-10 pickup, he drank at the party and then left with Walter Engel. Another partygoer, Adam Klotzbuecher, followed in another vehicle.

Toney said many witnesses at the party were reluctant to talk, and the case stalled.
The thrill kill case rekindled interest in Kuenzi, Toney said. The state Justice Department got involved and investigators started taking secret testimony from witnesses in front of a judge.

According to the complaint, Engel testified he thought they had hit a deer, but Klotzbuecher confirmed he helped Kuenzi move the body and he thought Kuenzi was drunk when Kuenzi left the party. State analysts also reported Kuenzi was a likely contributor to a DNA mixture found on McCoy’s pants.

Prosecutors charged Engel with perjury Wednesday.
Both he and Kuenzi are scheduled to make their initial court appearances Dec. 10.