Name: A decades old crime may have led to a grisly Somers homicide
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A decades old crime may have led to a grisly Somers homicide

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Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisA decades old crime may have led to a grisly Somers homicideShare thisA Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department squad car is stationed outside a home in the 1300 block of Sheridan Road where police began investigating the homicide in August.Before he is alleged to have beaten his grandfather to death with a hammer, Bryan Luitze II spoke to a relative about the grandfather’s past.“How can you forgive him?” Luitze asked, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday. Luitze told the relative he “could not forgive someone like that” and said he was considering “taking him out,” the complaint states.“Jesus, he paid his debt to society and it has been a long time,” the relative said he told Luitze. “It’s been a long time and it’s over.”Luitze, 25, of Racine, was charged Friday with first-degree intentional homicide for the Aug. 15 bludgeoning death of Charles Luitze, 70, of Somers. He is alleged to have beaten Luitze to death, leaving behind a gruesome scene discovered by a neighbor who went looking for Charles in his Sheridan Road home after she was unable to reach him.The first deputy who arrived after the neighbor called 911 reported that when he walked into Charles’s bedroom he found the elderly man lying dead on his bed, blood splattered on the walls. A hammer was still embedded in Charles’s face, the handle pointed toward the door, the center of his face crushed inward.“It’s a particularly chilling homicide,” Assistant District Attorney Andrew Bergoyne said in Kenosha County Circuit Court Friday. “The mechanism of murder here with the hammer blows bludgeoning the victim in the middle of the face is noteworthy.”Although in recent years he had lived a quiet life at his Somers home, gardening and sharing produce with neighbors, Charles Luitze had been convicted of child sex assault in 1991 and was a registered sex offender.Luitze was not a victim in that case — he was born after his grandfather’s conviction — and had not seen his grandfather since he was a child. But according to the criminal complaint, he had been talking to a relative and a friend about the man and his anger about his grandfather’s actions in the past.Luitze’s friend told investigators in August that Luitze “had been very upset recently and he talked about what Charles did and told her how he hated Charles.”According to the complaint, in the days before Charles died, Luitze went to Charles’s home to see him, pretending to be a Census worker. His grandfather did not recognize him, Luitze told his relative.But the visit did spook Charles, who told a friend who spoke to investigators that Charles had talked to him while they were walking together on the lakefront on Aug. 13 about a person who came to his home claiming to be a Census worker but who did not have identification. Charles told (the friend) the visit left him upset and afraid.No one saw Charles after Aug. 13. His body was found in his home on Aug. 15, the complaint states.Although Luitze was charged Friday, he has been in custody at Kenosha County Jail since Aug. 17 on a probation hold for a previous conviction.At his initial court appearance Friday, Bergoyne, the prosecutor, said the case against Luitze is strong, including the discovery of a backpack at Luitze’s home that was stained with blood matched by DNA to Charles.Bergoyne said the statements made to a relative show “a level of premeditation.”Defense attorney Hillary Edwards said the case is not as strong as it appears, saying that multiple people had access to the backpack, “including others that had motive here.”Edwards said there are also contradictory statements from witnesses about the timeline of when Charles was last seen alive.Court Commissioner Larry Keating called the allegations disturbing and “grisly,” setting Luitze’s bond at $1 million.Luitze is next expected to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday.Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.A Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department squad car is stationed outside a home in the 1300 block of Sheridan Road where police began investigating the homicide in August.{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisA decades old crime may have led to a grisly Somers homicideShare thisA Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department squad car is stationed outside a home in the 1300 block of Sheridan Road where police began investigating the...

A decades old crime may have led to a grisly Somers homicide

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