Eagle River Mike
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WAUPACA – A family waited six years for justice after losing a son to a hit-and-run crash along a rural Waupaca County road.
A jury delivered it Thursday in two hours.
Rory Kuenzi, 26, was found guilty in Waupaca County Court of hit-and-run causing death and homicide by drunken driving.
The verdicts came just more than six years after Kevin McCoy was found dead in a ditch in the Town of Farmington.
Family and supporters of Kuenzi remained silent in the Waupaca County courtroom while the jury foreman read the verdict on the hit-and-run count. Kathleen Marsden, McCoy's mother, broke into tears when the foreman said "guilty" to the homicide.
"It's finally done," she said, while struggling to talk after court adjourned.
A jury of eight women and four men chosen from a pool in Dodge County last week returned the verdicts about 6 p.m. after deliberating for about two hours.
Kuenzi struck and killed McCoy, 20, on Oct. 23, 2004, after an early morning, underage drinking party in the Town of Farmington. Both Kuenzi and McCoy attended the party, and witnesses testified about a confrontation between them during the party.
Assistant Atty. Gen. Dennis Krueger during closing arguments said questions regarding the confrontation weren't to suggest the subsequent crash was something "sinister."
He said the behavior was one of several indicators that night that Kuenzi wasn't just impaired, but drunk when he pulled his Chevrolet S-10 pickup from the driveway of the nearby home and headed south down Butts Road, where he struck McCoy.
He urged the jury to follow what he said the evidence showed.
"Rory drove that truck," Krueger said. "Rory was drunk, Rory hit him; Rory threw him in the ditch, then left."
It was a long journey for McCoy's family.
Though Kuenzi became a suspect on the same day of the crash, charges weren't filed until 2009 and after the state Department of Justice took over the case.
His father, James McCoy, traveled from Virginia to watch the trial.
He and Marsden shared a hug before walking from the courtroom to a group of reporters waiting outside the doors.
A jury delivered it Thursday in two hours.
Rory Kuenzi, 26, was found guilty in Waupaca County Court of hit-and-run causing death and homicide by drunken driving.
The verdicts came just more than six years after Kevin McCoy was found dead in a ditch in the Town of Farmington.
Family and supporters of Kuenzi remained silent in the Waupaca County courtroom while the jury foreman read the verdict on the hit-and-run count. Kathleen Marsden, McCoy's mother, broke into tears when the foreman said "guilty" to the homicide.
"It's finally done," she said, while struggling to talk after court adjourned.
A jury of eight women and four men chosen from a pool in Dodge County last week returned the verdicts about 6 p.m. after deliberating for about two hours.
Kuenzi struck and killed McCoy, 20, on Oct. 23, 2004, after an early morning, underage drinking party in the Town of Farmington. Both Kuenzi and McCoy attended the party, and witnesses testified about a confrontation between them during the party.
Assistant Atty. Gen. Dennis Krueger during closing arguments said questions regarding the confrontation weren't to suggest the subsequent crash was something "sinister."
He said the behavior was one of several indicators that night that Kuenzi wasn't just impaired, but drunk when he pulled his Chevrolet S-10 pickup from the driveway of the nearby home and headed south down Butts Road, where he struck McCoy.
He urged the jury to follow what he said the evidence showed.
"Rory drove that truck," Krueger said. "Rory was drunk, Rory hit him; Rory threw him in the ditch, then left."
It was a long journey for McCoy's family.
Though Kuenzi became a suspect on the same day of the crash, charges weren't filed until 2009 and after the state Department of Justice took over the case.
His father, James McCoy, traveled from Virginia to watch the trial.
He and Marsden shared a hug before walking from the courtroom to a group of reporters waiting outside the doors.
