Joseph Jakubowski

A federal trial begins Monday for Joseph Jakubowski, who’s accused of stealing a cache of weapons and eluding authorities last spring.

Jakubowski was arrested in Vernon County in southwest Wisconsin on April 14th, after a ten-day manhunt. He’d mailed a long manifesto to the White House, and at the time, it was feared that Jakubowski might be planning a mass shooting.

Jakubowski pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging he stole 18 guns and two silencers from Armageddon Supplies in Janesville, and for being a felon in possession of firearms.

Johnny Scott (Photo: WHBY)

Appleton police say a 48-year-old woman was murdered early Thursday morning at a duplex on the city’s southeast side.

Sgt. Dave Lund says neighbors called 911 just after 2 a.m. and reported hearing multiple gunshots.

Police arrested 58-year-old Johnny Scott and have identified Annie Ford as the victim. Scott is in custody on possible charges of first-degree intentional homicide and reckless endangerment.

Police say officers responded to two calls at the duplex Wednesday night, and they were told the situations only involved arguing and there were not grounds for an arrest at the time.

WHBY

File photo

A De Pere businessman faces 14 federal charges that he defrauded more than $9 million in loans and investments, some of which came from the state’s job creation agency.

A grand jury in Milwaukee handed down a complaint against 62-year-old Ronald Van Den Heuvel. Prosecutors say he was planning to use the money for his “Green Box” business aimed at turning fast food waste into energy and other products — but he instead used the funds for a Cadillac, Packer tickets, payments to creditors, and support for his ex wife.

About $1.2 million allegedly came from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and officials say he defrauded a Chinese investment program and a private investment firm in Canada.

Van Den Heuvel has faced fraud allegations in the past, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued him this week for securities’ law violations.

Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn says a wild shoot-out caught on surveillance video early Sunday is not that uncommon. It shows several men shooting at each other with semi-automatic rifles. Flynn says his officers face this kind of firepower almost every day.

“We’ve got an extremely heavily armed criminal population in Milwaukee, and they’ve got no reluctance to use those weapons,” Flynn said. A bystander was killed in the crossfire Sunday.

Flynn said a suspect hasn’t been arrested, but police know who they’re looking for. “Fortunately I think we’re going to be able to bring to justice, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop seeing this weaponry.”

Teela

Cash bond has been set at $500,000 for a 19-year-old Grand Chute man accused of firing the shot which killed a 20-year-old man on Sunday.

Trevor Teela, who faces felony counts of First Degree Intentional Homicide and Manufacturing/Delivering THC, is accused of killing Benjamin Graves in the 600 block of Olson Avenue.

Seventeen-year-old Elian Coronado has also been charged with two felonies, Possesion of a Firearm by a Felon and Manufacturing/Delivering THC.

According to the criminal complaint, Coronado told officers that he and Teela set up a drug deal with Graves and another man. When Coronado thought Graves was going to leave without paying for the drugs, they reportedly started fighting.

Coronado

Coronado allegedly told investigators that he heard Teela make a comment toward Graves, prior to hearing a single gunshot in Graves’ direction.

The 17-year-old then reportedly saw Graves lying on the ground. No word on when Teela or Coronado are due back in Outagamie County Court.

WTAQ

A Madison man accused of blowing up his home in an attempt to hide the murder of his wife is being held on $1 million cash bail. Steven Pirus, 59, made a special court appearance on Tuesday where the judge assigned bail. Pirus is expected to return to Dane County Court Thursday for an initial appearance.

During Tuesday’s hearing, prosecutors said Pirus disconnected the gas line to the home’s dryer, which caused the explosion on Wednesday, September 13.

Chief Mike Koval said earlier in the week that Pirus shot and killed 50-year-old Lee Anne Pirus, and that her body remained in the southwest side home “for weeks, if not months” before the blast.

Steven Pirus is expected to face charges of first degree intentional homicide, arson and recklessly endangering safety. Koval said the reckless endangerment charges were added because there were many neighbors in the area at the time of the explosion.

A statement from the Dane County Medical Examiner’s office Sunday afternoon said Lee Anne died from being shot — not from the explosion or fire.

WIBA

Langlois

A Dane County sheriff’s deputy was injured Monday by a homicide suspect. Deputies were in the process of moving 37-year-old Curtis J. Langlois from visitation back to his cell in the City-County building jail when he began shouting and threatening one of the deputies. Langlois was in full restraints at this time.

While in an elevator, Langlois struggled with deputies. He was able to get his handcuffed hands around one deputy’s neck, chocking her until three other deputies regained control of Langlois.

Langlois now faces new charges of Resisting, Battery to a Law Enforcement Officer, and Strangulation. The deputy injured in the attack was treated at the hospital and released.

Langlois is charged with shooting two men, one of them to death, at a 7-11 station on the West Beltline on August 2nd. His bail was recently set at $2 million.

WIBA

File photo

A state appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling that found Wisconsin’s right-to-work law was unconstitutional.

The law, passed by Republican lawmakers and Governor Scott Walker in 2015, prohibits employers from making union membership a condition of employment. Union groups contend that amounts to an unconstitutional taking of their property, since non-union workers still benefit from union negotiations.

A Dane County judge overturned the law last year, in a ruling the Wisconsin District Three Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed. The court found that the law still allows employees to unionize, and any benefit non-members receive “does not deprive compensation for those mandated services.”

The ruling is similar to one reached in federal court, after the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals found in July that the law was constitutional and threw out the lawsuit.

Two Wisconsin men have been arrested on drug charges after a traffic stop in Nebraska.

The Nebraska State Patrol reports 21-year-old Joseph MacDonald and 23-year-old Casey Sorenson have been charged with possession and intent to sell hash oil and drug paraphernalia.

NSP says troopers stopped the two men on Interstate 80 near Grand Island Sunday afternoon on a charge of following too closely. A drug dog brought to the scene led troopers to search the trunk of the car where they found about one-and-a-half pounds of marijuana as well as several containers of hash oil, hash wax, and other items.

Nebraska Radio Network