Arbor Vitae man pleads guilty to 12 felonies in Mercer murder case

By RICHARD JENKINS

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PHILLIPS, Wis. - An Arbor Vitae, Wis., man pleaded guilty to 12 felonies in Price County Circuit Court Monday in two cases related to the murder of a Lac du Flambeau man near Mercer in 2017.

Evan T. Oungst, 29, pleaded guilty to second degree reckless homicide by omission in one case against him, as well as seven counts of harboring or aiding a felon and four counts of delivery of a prescription drug in a related case.

Oungst was one of five men prosecutors say were involved in the murder of Wayne Valliere Jr., whose body was found Jan. 1, 2018 in a remote area north of Mercer. Valliere's mother reported him missing Christmas Day.

"Everybody in my family was affected by this, it's changed our lives tremendously - we're not the same people anymore," Wayne Valliere Sr. said outside the courtroom after the hearing. "Like I said today, it's just a small piece of closure for our family. We have to somehow, someway pick up the pieces and try and figure out a way to move forward with our lives."

He compared the loss of his son to dropping a pebble into a pond, with the impact rippling out from the family through the community and into the wider world.

Even if Oungst's plea offered some closure, Valliere Sr. said the wound will never completely heal.

"There will never be closure, just acceptance and trying to move forward with our lives the best we can," he said.

Prosecutors say the defendants took Valliere Jr. on a drug-fueled drive and shot him on Dec. 22, 2017, depositing the body off a seldom-used road north of Mercer. The body was recovered behind a berm, hidden off Swamp Creek Road, near the end of Moose Lake Road.

A jury found two other defendants - Joseph Lussier, 28, Richard Allen, 28, both of Lac du Flambeau - guilty of being the actual shooters in August and the two were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Iron County court.

Although Oungst wasn't the one who actually killed Valliere, information presented in court Monday indicated his presence in the vehicle meant he didn't do enough to prevent the murder.

"He had a legal duty to summon law enforcement officers and other assistance to otherwise provide assistance to (Valliere)," said Michael J. Steinle, Oungst's attorney, clarifying the specifics of the most serious charge his client was pleading to.

Oungst also admitted to providing Valliere, as well as several of his co-defendants, with gabapentin on the night on the murder. Gabapentin is a prescription drug used to treat certain types of seizures, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. This was the basis for the four counts of delivering a prescription drug.

The harboring or aiding a felon charges stem from Oungst's actions after the murder. According to the information presented in court Monday; Oungst gave directions to his co-defendants as they drove away from the murder scene, removed clothes and shoes Allen wore the night of the murder from a home and gave Allen a ride to Crandon, Wis., Dec. 30.

Under the terms of Oungst's plea agreement, assistant attorneys general Richard Dufour and Chad Verbeten who are prosecuting the case agreed to limit the sentence they will seek to no more than a total of 30-40 years in prison on all the charges Oungst pleaded to - as long as the pre-sentence investigation in the case doesn't recommend more than 40 years in prison.

"If a pre-sentence investigation should recommend a greater amount of confinement time than 40 years, the state is free to argue up to whatever the maximum in the pre-sentence investigation is," Dufour said.

In exchange for Oungst's guilty pleas, prosecutors also agreed to reduce the most serious charge he faced from being a party to the crime of first degree intentional homicide to being a party to the crime of second degree reckless homicide and dismissed a charge of being a party to the crime of hiding a corpse. Although dismissed, that charge was still read into the record. A judge can consider charges that are dismissed but read into the record when imposing a sentence, but those charges can't increase the maximum sentence.

In the other case Oungst pleaded guilty to - regarding his actions in the aftermath of the murder - prosecutors agreed to dismiss but read into the record two additional counts of harboring or aiding a felon and one additional count of delivery of a prescription drug.

Although it wasn't officially consolidated with the two Iron County cases, the plea deal included the dismissal of a case against Oungst in Vilas County. Online court records indicate he was charged with harboring or aiding a felon and resisting or obstructing an officer in that case.

Along with Allen and Lussier, another of Oungst's co-defendants has also been sentenced to prison for his role in the murder.

Lussier's brother - James Lussier, 20, of Arbor Vitae - was sentenced in January to 15 years in prison and another 15 years of extended supervision, along with another eight years of probation to be served after the first sentence.

The final co-defendant, Curtis Wolfe, is scheduled to stand trial in December on charges of being party to the crime of first-degree intentional homicide and being a party to the crime of hiding a corpse.

Although both cases Oungst pleaded to were Iron County cases, according to information presented in court the parties agreed to hold Monday's hearing in Price County as Price County Judge Kevin Klein has been hearing the case.

On Monday Klein ordered a pre-sentence investigation be completed in the case, after which a date for sentencing will be scheduled.