Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — A second defendant in the murder of a Lac du Flambeau man appeared in Iron County Court Monday for a hearing where his bond was set at $1 million cash.
Joseph Lussier, 26, appeared in court after being transferred to the Iron County Jail from Vilas County Friday.
He is one of five defendants facing charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree intentional homicide as a party to a crime while armed with a dangerous weapon and hiding a corpse in connection to the death of Wayne Valliere Jr.
Valliere was last sen Dec. 22 and reported missing by his mother on Christmas Day. His body was found New Year’s Day off Swamp Creek Road in the town of Mercer, according to the criminal complaint against the five defendants.
The complaint alleges the group took Valliere out to the location after a dispute over some money and a meth pipe Lussier and another defendant believed Valliere had stolen. The complaint also alleges the defendants may have believed Valliere was a criminal informant.
According to the complaint, the defendants beat Valliere before shooting him repeatedly.
A forensic pathologist who examined the body found Valliere was shot eight times, included twice in the head and neck, according to the complaint.
While multiple witness interviews detailed in the complaint said another defendant — Richard Francis Alexander Allen, 27 — fired the first shot, there are also multiple allegations in the complaint that Lussier repeatedly shot Valliere as well.
Allen is also being held in the Iron County Jail on a $1 million cash bond in the case.
Two other defendants — Evan T. Oungst, 28, and Curtis A. Wolfe, 26 — are being held elsewhere in Wisconsin awaiting extradition to Iron County; while an arrest warrant has been issued for the final defendant, James B. Lussier, 19.
According to online court records, the defendants are next scheduled to appear in court March 5.
