It took jurors in a Waupaca County courtroom Thursday night only an hour and a half to find Rory Kuenzi guilty on both counts of homicide by drunk driving, and hit-and-run causing death.
Witnesses said that the 26-year-old Kuenzi and 20-year-old Kevin McCoy had a confrontation at an underage drinking party in October 2004 and afterward, Kuenzi ran him down on a rural road. Afterward he another man, Adam Klotzbuecher hid the body in a ditch. Klotzbuecher was given immunity in an exchange for testifying.
State Assistant Atty. Gen. Dennis Krueger spoke of challenges in prosecuting the case, “Time probably was the biggest thing and just getting these people to finally come forward and say what the truth was.”
Krueger credits forensic evidence and DNA testing from the state crime lab as a method of corroborating testimony.
Kuenzi came to statewide public attention in 2009 when he, his younger brother Robbie Kuenzi and a third man, Nicholas Hermes, were charged in connection with the running down of deer with snowmobiles in the Waupaca County town of Lind in January. Animal mistreatment charges against the Kuenzis were dropped and the state Justice Department took over the hit-and-run case.
Jurors were selected from Dodge County due to pre-trial publicity.
Kuenzi faces up to forty years in prison but no sentencing date has been set. The Weyauwega man is currently locked up after his probation was revoked earlier this year on a batter conviction.