safety thoughts on Swamp Murders Deadliest Catch 32-year-old Mark Mueller & Kent Heitholt

case facts

A Lake County judge Wednesday sentenced a 20-year-old sailor from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center to 54 years in prison for the murder of a Wheeling fisherman along the lakefront in Waukegan.

During the sentencing hearing, Jared Fitch told Judge Harry D. Hartel Jr. that he was sorry for his role in the slaying of 32-year-old Mark Mueller in the early morning hours of Oct. 20, 1989.

``I can`t say I am sorry enough because I know it will not change anything,`` Fitch said.

While fishing that morning, Mueller caught a two-foot salmon when he struck up a conversation with Harold Hains III, 20, of Casper, Wyo., who came walking by, authorities said.

Hains was then absent without leave as a sailor at the Great Lakes center near North Chicago. He and Fitch, his Navy buddy, were intent on getting some money and a car to get out of town, according to Lake County State`s Atty. Michael J. Waller. Fitch wanted to go back home to Barberton, Ohio.

While Hains and Mueller chatted amicably along the shore, Fitch said he waited in some bushes. As Mueller was putting his salmon in a bag, Hains struck him in the back of the head with a baseball bat found in an alley near the Navy base, according to a statement Fitch made to police.

``At the time, the guy (Mueller) hit the ground. He wasn`t dead, he was kinda . . . kinda breathing . . . but he wasn`t dead,`` Fitch told police.

``So I told Hal (Hains) to hit him again, and Hal hit him again and he got a little scared. I guess he got hit about nine times.``

Fitch said he and Hains then rolled Mueller into Lake Michigan. ``He was still alive when we put him in the water,`` Fitch said. ``Because when we put him in the water he woke up.

``He . . . um . . . kinda looked up at us and he had this . . . look on his face and he was trying to splash a little bit with one hand.``

Fitch and Hains took $9 in cash from Mueller, his driver`s license and his battered 1980 Chevrolet Malibu station wagon. The car was later found in Barberton and led to the arrests of Fitch and Hains.

``I can`t stand here and tell you that I was not responsible for what happened. I was there,`` Fitch said Wednesday.

Waller and his assistant, Robin Goodstein, urged a 60-year sentence for Fitch-10 years less than the 70-year sentence Hartel gave Hains.

``The crime can only be described as brutal, cruel, vicious and heartless,`` Waller told the judge.

Peter Staben, Fitch`s attorney, urged a 20- to 25-year sentence. He said his client has shown genuine remorse and deserves another chance at freedom in the future.

Hartel said he was trying to be objective in his sentencing. The judge said he has fished the Waukegan lakefront where Mueller died and that other fishermen have tried to tell him what the sentence should be.

Hartel said that Fitch showed he wanted to harm Mueller by helping roll the fisherman into the lake. He said he is aware of Fitch`s troubled youth and of a broken family life, but he said, ``I think society has to be protected from him.``

Under Illinois law, Fitch is eligible for parole after serving half the sentence.
MORE:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-02-21/news/9101170102_1_sentencing-hearing-lake-michigan-sailor

wiki wrote:
Ryan W. Ferguson (born October 19, 1984) is an American personal trainer and author who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being convicted of a 2001 murder in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. At the time of the murder, Ferguson was a 17-year-old high school student.[2]

Kent Heitholt was found beaten and strangled shortly after 2 am on November 1, 2001, in the parking lot of the Columbia Daily Tribune, where he worked as a sports editor. Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip that a man named Charles Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and was concerned that he may have been involved with the murder. Erickson, who spent that evening partying with Ferguson, was interrogated by police. Despite initially seeming to have no memory of the evening of the murders, he eventually confessed and implicated Ferguson as well. Ferguson was convicted in the fall of 2005 on the basis of Erickson's testimony as well as the testimony of a building employee.

In the early morning hours of November 1, 2001, 48-year-old Kent Heitholt was murdered in the parking lot of The Columbia Daily Tribune where he worked as a sports editor. He was last seen alive by co-worker Michael Boyd. Boyd told police that they had a work related conversation in the parking lot between 2:12 and 2:20am.[7]

Minutes later, janitor Shawna Ornt stepped outside for a cigarette break and saw two shadowy figures near Heitholt's car. She ran back inside to get her supervisor, Jerry Trump.[7] Both janitors witnessed two college-age men near Heitholt's car.[2] The janitors reported that one of the men yelled "Someone's hurt out here, man" before both men walked away through a nearby alley. The janitors notified other employees and called 911 at 2:26 am. He was found severely beaten with a blunt object, and then strangled.[8]

On the same evening, 17-year-old high school junior Ryan Ferguson and another junior Charles Erickson were attending Halloween parties in the area.[2] Ferguson and Erickson later decided to go to meet Ferguson's sister at a bar called By George because a bouncer who worked there would let them in despite being underage. When the teens were out of money, Ferguson's sister bought them a few additional drinks, then cut them off and Ferguson and Erickson left the bar.[9]

On the night of the murder, Erickson had been under the influence of cocaine, Adderall, and alcohol. The following day, he had had no memory of what had transpired that Halloween night. At a later hearing, attorneys asked Erickson if he had noticed anything unusual the morning following the crime such as injuries or blood on his clothing. Erickson confirmed that there was nothing out of the ordinary.[10]

Ornt told police that she got a good look at the young men while Trump reported that he was unable to see them clearly. Police recovered unidentified fingerprints on and inside Heitholt's car as well as an unidentified hair in his hand. Police also recovered footprints in the blood at the crime scene. Ornt gave police a description of the men and a composite sketch was made.[8]

The crime had been unsolved for two years when, in October 2003, local media again covered the murder. Erickson reportedly had several dreams about the crime after seeing an article in a newspaper and, a few days later, mentioned the murder to Ferguson asking him if he thought he may have be involved. "It was crazy that someone had been murdered a couple blocks away from where we had been partying". said Erickson. Ferguson reassured him that he was not involved in the crime. Over time, Erickson says, he began to think more and more about the murders and about the fact that he could not remember that evening.[10]

In November 2003, Erickson read an article in the local newspaper that included a sketch of a possible suspect in the case. Erickson thought the sketch resembled him and became more concerned. He told friends Nick Gilpin and Art Figueroa about his worries and they notified police.[9]

In the recorded interrogation, Erickson seems to have little knowledge of the crime. He told police, "It's just so foggy... I could be sitting here fabricating all of it."[11] At one point he is asked questions about the weapon used to strangle Heitholt. Erickson replies that he thinks it was a shirt. When the police officer tells him that it was not, he replies "Maybe a bungee cord?" Eventually the police officer tells Erickson that the weapon was Heitholt's own belt. Erickson replies: "I don't remember that at all."[11] After much prodding by investigators, Erickson eventually told police that he and Ferguson robbed Heitholt for drinking money.[8][12][13] In March, 2004, Erickson and Ferguson were arrested and charged with the murder.[9][14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_W._Ferguson