Wisc. Student Charged in Triple Homicide
stargazer
By JR ROSS
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A University of Wisconsin freshman who had lost
thousands of dollars gambling was arrested and charged with killing three
men in their sleep, authorities said Monday.
Meng-Ju Wu, 19, was charged with three counts of first-degree homicide.
The men were found dead of gunshot wounds on June 26 after a woman looked
into a window of a duplex in Verona and saw someone lying in a pool of
blood. Jason C. McGuigan, 28; Daniel R. Swanson, 25; and Dustin J. Wilson,
17, were killed.
Wu was arrested late Sunday in New York City, Verona Police chief Bernie
Coughlin said. Authorities were unsure if Wu was trying to flee the country.
Extradition back to Wisconsin was expected to take a couple of weeks.
According to the complaint, Wu told authorities he had McGuigan set up an
offshore betting account for him. McGuigan also advised Wu which teams to
bet on, and Wu used one tip to win $17,000, the complaint said.
McGuigan allegedly threatened Wu at gunpoint to ``keep his mouth shut''
about the winnings after Wu began celebrating the win in front of others,
the complaint said. One witness told police McGuigan later said Wu was going
to get what was coming to him.
Wu told authorities he enjoyed gambling but had given it up after losing
$15,000 between April and June, the complaint said.
Police also said Wu's car was found in the driveway the day of the
shootings. The gun police believe was used to kill the three men has not
been found, but its carrying case was discovered amid trash collected near
Wu's apartment in Madison, the complaint said.
Police also found a plastic bag in a trash bin near Wu's apartment that
contained a pair of sandals with traces of Wilson's blood and a letter with
a return address from Wu.
Stephen Hurley, Wu's attorney, did not immediately return a message seeking
comment late Monday.
Wu, originally from Taiwan, is a permanent resident alien and was majoring
in Chinese, the university said. None of the victims had any ties to the
university.
Wilson's family in Iowa said the 17-year-old had told his brothers someone
was out to kill him.
Mark Fenster
> Wisc. Student Charged in Triple Homicide
> By JR ROSS
>
>
> MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A University of Wisconsin freshman who had lost
> thousands of dollars gambling was arrested and charged with killing three
> men in their sleep, authorities said Monday.
>
> Meng-Ju Wu, 19, was charged with three counts of first-degree homicide.
>
> The men were found dead of gunshot wounds on June 26 after a woman looked
> into a window of a duplex in Verona and saw someone lying in a pool of
> blood. Jason C. McGuigan, 28; Daniel R. Swanson, 25; and Dustin J. Wilson,
> 17, were killed.
>
> Wu was arrested late Sunday in New York City, Verona Police chief Bernie
> Coughlin said. Authorities were unsure if Wu was trying to flee the country.
> Extradition back to Wisconsin was expected to take a couple of weeks.
[snip rest of original article]
Some additional information on Mr. Wu from the Milwaukee
Journal/Sentinel...
Fenster
*********************************************************
Gambling debts, threats with a Glock, and 3 men are shot to death
By ESTHER CHOU and NAHAL TOOSI
jc...@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: July 12, 2003
Friends of Meng-Ju Wu recall this about him: He liked easy money.
At his high school in Newark, Del., the tall, thin teen talked of
get-rich-quick schemes. He liked to gamble, they said. He started out
with penny poker, but got involved with high-stakes betting while at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Wu desired success, but never
tried harder than he had to, buddies said.
"He was very keen on the idea of getting something for nothing," said
Nick Tuke, a high school friend.
Now Wu has found himself playing for the highest stakes of his life.
Authorities say he shot three men, including one who advised him on
his bets.
"We certainly believe that gambling was at least - and is at least -
part of the motive," said Bernard Coughlin, chief of police in Verona,
outside Madison, where the slayings occurred.
The 19-year-old Wu, a permanent resident who moved to the United
States from Taiwan, is charged in Dane County with three counts of
first-degree homicide. He was arrested Sunday in New York and remains
in jail there.
His Delaware friends are shocked. They remember an even-tempered,
mild-mannered young man who avoided confrontation. They said "Mark"
had two personas: the quiet, smart kid among the masses, and the
intelligent but lazy goof-off among his few close friends.
"I was really surprised, because he doesn't have a murderer's attitude
- he's not aggressive," said David Dittell, a former classmate.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit
Court, Wu told authorities he had lost $15,000 gambling between April
and June. Bank records showed he'd withdrawn more than $72,000 between
December 2002 and June 9. Wu also told detectives he was "scared about
his parents finding out about his gambling addiction."
Neither Wu nor his family could be reached for comment last week. Wu's
Madison attorney, Stephen Hurley, declined to comment. His lawyer in
New York, Charles Abercrombie, would say only that Wu plans to fight
extradition back to Wisconsin. The next hearing in Wu's case is set
for Aug. 5 in New York.
The shooting deaths of the three men in Verona - Dustin Wilson, 17,
Daniel Swanson, 25, and Jason McGuigan, 28, who is believed to have
advised Wu on sports bets - have chilled the small Wisconsin community
and devastated the victims' families and friends. Authorities believe
the men died either late June 25 or early June 26.
"I want justice served on this individual," said McGuigan's father,
Robert McGuigan.
Rarely discussed family
It is unclear exactly when Wu first came to the United States, but
some friends recall him as far back as seventh grade. He lived with
his aunt and uncle in Newark. According to his friends, his parents
sent him to the United States, hoping he would get a better education.
Wu gained a reputation as a smart, easygoing guy. He took honors
classes and got roles in productions such as "The Importance of Being
Earnest" and "Fame," said Lauren Layton, a fellow thespian.
Wu would go out of his way to avoid regular work, Tuke said. Often,
his schemes caused more trouble than they were worth.
Several friends remembered Wu trying to get out of a physics test by
telling his teacher he had an appointment with a Chinese doctor in
Philadelphia. Instead of leaving the school, Wu stood outside the
classroom window and was caught by the teacher.
Wu rarely discussed his parents or family life, but his friends often
assumed he was well-off, noting he usually carried $100 to $200 in
cash and that he drove a late-model Mitsubishi Eclipse.
With the exception of a few phone calls, friends said, Wu did not keep
regular contact after leaving for college. He enrolled at UW-Madison
in the fall of 2002, majoring in Chinese.
During the academic year, he lived in a single room in a private
residence hall on N. Frances St. A management official there said Wu
was quiet and had few, if any, social contacts in the building.
Sophomore Erin Johnson took a Chinese literature class with Wu in the
spring. She said Wu rarely went to class, and when he did come, he was
late and usually didn't bring his book. Wu was "pretty rude" to the
professor and adopted a cynical interpretation to the texts, Johnson
said. "I think he tried to pretend like he wasn't, but he was somewhat
interested," she said.
Gambling interest
The little contact Wu had with his Delaware friends sheds some more
light on his interest in gambling.
In January, he returned to Newark for a weeklong visit. He told high
school friend Keith Kaminski that he had vacationed in Las Vegas with
his parents the previous week and lost $300 playing blackjack. In
March, he called Dittell and told him about his trips to Indian
casinos and his desire to learn how to count cards. Gambling sounded
like an integral but problematic part of Wu's life, Dittell said.
Also in March, Wu called Tuke and told him he had gained access to a
casino. He was counting cards in blackjack, having at some point lost
$5,000 but boasted he once won $2,000 in a week. "He was very excited
he was able to make money very easily," Tuke said.
The next time Tuke heard from Wu was Sunday, July 6, the day he was
arrested. Wu needed help contacting a Madison lawyer. He didn't want
to talk in detail about the Verona killings, Tuke said, but offered
that, "They think I did it because I spent a lot of time at his home."
Discovering the bodies
According to the criminal complaint:
McGuigan's aunt discovered the three victims' bodies on June 26 when
she stopped by to drop off mail at McGuigan's residence at 305 S. Main
St. in Verona.
On June 27, a detective called Wu in New York, where he had flown with
his visiting parents the day before. He told detectives the three
planned to fly to Taiwan July 1.
Wu also said he'd met McGuigan two months before, befriending him
because of his desire to gamble. He said he often stayed at McGuigan's
home, where Swanson and Wilson also had been staying. Wu said he knew
McGuigan kept a 9mm Glock handgun in his Cadillac Escalade. The Glock,
believed to be the murder weapon, has not yet been recovered.
Wu also told investigators he was at McGuigan's the afternoon of June
25, playing Monopoly and PlayStation games, but that he went home to
take a nap and later had dinner with his parents.
A search of Wu's Mitsubishi on June 27 revealed brochures and
documents on Glock firearms. Though he denied ever firing the gun, Wu
told investigators he had loaded bullets into a clip for it and that
it was easy to operate because it had no safety.
Detectives spoke to various people who said they had seen McGuigan and
Wu together. One woman said that on June 21, she saw McGuigan and Wu
in Wisconsin Dells and that Wu thanked McGuigan for a tip, saying he
had won $17,000. McGuigan gave him a high five but soon afterward
pulled out a gun, waved it around and told Wu to keep his mouth shut.
Another woman said she saw a similar instance when McGuigan pointed
his gun at Wu in a "gangster style" fashion. Still another woman said
she saw McGuigan on the evening of June 25 in Wisconsin Dells and that
he said Wu "was going to get what was coming to him."
A detective traveled to New York on June 28 to interview Wu in person.
There, the young man told the investigator about his gambling losses.
Wu said McGuigan set up an account for him in the Bahamas and gave him
betting tips. Wu also said he had thrown a pair of Adidas sandals he
wore the night of the shootings into a Dumpster in the parking lot of
his apartment building. He said he tossed the shoes because they were
old and he no longer wanted them.
That same evening, detectives recovered from the Dumpster a white
plastic bag containing a pair of sandals. A lab analysis revealed that
blood found on the sandal strap matched the DNA profile of Dustin
Wilson, one of the victims.
Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin said neither Wilson nor Swanson is
believed to have been involved in McGuigan's gambling ventures.
stargazer
"Mark Fenster" <Fenster_2...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:b5e42449.03071...@posting.google.com...
> "stargazer" <star...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:<_TnOa.38$OZ5...@fe02.atl2.webusenet.com>...
> > Wisc. Student Charged in Triple Homicide
> > By JR ROSS
> >
> >
> > MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A University of Wisconsin freshman who had lost
> > thousands of dollars gambling was arrested and charged with killing
three
> > men in their sleep, authorities said Monday.
> >
> > Meng-Ju Wu, 19, was charged with three counts of first-degree homicide.
> >
> > The men were found dead of gunshot wounds on June 26 after a woman
looked
> > into a window of a duplex in Verona and saw someone lying in a pool of
> > blood. Jason C. McGuigan, 28; Daniel R. Swanson, 25; and Dustin J.
Wilson,
> > 17, were killed.
> >
> > Wu was arrested late Sunday in New York City, Verona Police chief Bernie
> > Coughlin said. Authorities were unsure if Wu was trying to flee the
country.
> > Extradition back to Wisconsin was expected to take a couple of weeks.
>
> [snip rest of original article]
>
> Some additional information on Mr. Wu from the Milwaukee
> Journal/Sentinel...
>
> Fenster
Thanks Mark,
sg