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KILLER SPANBAUER PUT AWAY FOR GOOD JUDGE ASKS WHAT HELLISH 'CESSPOOL' HE 'SLITHERED' FROM Published on Wednesday, December 21, 1994 Susan Lampert Smith, Wisconsin State Journal Saying that serial murderer David Spanbauer was "a piece of offal" who had robbed Wisconsinites of even their faith in God, Judge James Bayorgeon Tuesday heaped the maximum sentences on him. "I don't know from what cesspool in hell you slithered forth," the judge roared at the silent rapist, "and I can't send you back." Instead, Bayorgeon gave Spanbauer, 53, maximum consecutive sentences for the rapes, murders and kidnappings of at least six women and girls. The sentence will guarantee Spanbauer will die in the prison system where he has spent most of his life. Bayorgeon set Spanbauer's earliest possible release date - December 20, 2191 - by adding together the life expectancies of the three young people he killed. They were Cora Jones, 12, of Waupaca; Ronelle Eichstedt, 10, of Ripon; and Trudi Jeschke, 21, of Appleton. But Bayorgeon's packed courtroom showed the victims outnumbered many more than three. Bayorgeon sent all but a few members of the media down the hall to watch the proceedings on a television screen, but still his 92-person capacity courtroom could not hold all the grieving parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers and friends. Cora Jones' relatives wore T-shirts bearing her smiling picture, the slogan "Never Give Up," and small pink ribbons held by angels. Charlotte Eichstedt, Ronelle's mother, wore a Christmas sweater with two golden-winged angels on it. The families of the two little girls talked of the shock of finding their children had disappeared while biking along apparently tranquil rural roads, the frustration of the futile, statewide hunts to find them and the horror of finding their bodies abandoned in ditches. They talked of families destroyed by grief. "My father is my hero," said Ronelle's half-sister, Terry Eichstedt, in a statement that even had members of the media in tears. "And when you see your hero cry like I've seen him cry, you don't know what to believe in anymore." Indeed, Judge Bayorgeon said Spanbauer had destroyed some people's faith in God. "They cannot believe the God they loved and worshipped would let a piece of offal like you walk this Earth," Bayorgeon said. Among the victims were the families of at least three women who survived Spanbauer's attacks. The mother of an Appleton 15-year-old whom Spanbauer raped two months ago said her family has been forever scarred. "We lived in constant fear of him returning to our home," she said. "He knew where we lived, but we didn't know who he was. I felt helpless as a mother because I didn't know what this predator would do next." In halting testimony punctuated by sobs, another of Spanbauer's victims, Miriam Stariha, talked of how Spanbauer had ruined her life. "He said he was trying to scare me and he did," she said. "Now I'm afraid to go outside by myself." Stariha, 24, was riding her bike along a rural road near Waupaca last July Fourth weekend when Spanbauer rammed her with his car and knocked her off her bike. Spanbauer then came at her brandishing a handgun, but was scared off when another car approached. Two months later, Spanbauer kidnapped Cora Jones, who was riding her bike near where he had assaulted Stariha. He abducted the girl, sexually assaulted her and abandoned her body in a ditch, just as he did to Eichstedt two years before. Stariha said her fear only grew after Spanbauer was arrested and she realized what he had intended to do to her. She was one of many who said Spanbauer deserved the death penalty. "Look at him," she said, sobbing. "He doesn't deserve to live." But Spanbauer sat impassively through the two hours of testimony, during which he was called "evil," a "coward" and accused of having "a foul, festering soul." He never spoke and ignored Vince Biskupic when the Outagamie County district attorney demanded he turn around and face the people he hurt. "I hope you see all these faces, the ones you are trying to ignore," Biskupic said. "I hope these faces haunt you and torment you all the days of your life." After the hearing, Spanbauer's attorney, Thomas Zoesch of Appleton, said he objected to his client being "baited and goaded" in court. He said Spanbauer declined to speak on his advice, adding, "anything he could have said would have sounded feeble, meaningless." Zoesch said he believes Spanbauer is legally sane and that his client "internally feels remorse" for his crimes. But when asked if he thought Spanbauer would still be raping and murdering if an Appleton homeowner hadn't tackled him during a burglary attempt in November, Zoesch replied, "It's certainly reasonable to think it (the crime spree) would continue." Under an agreement negotiated before Spanbauer would confess, the 18 charges against him - ranging from burglary to murder - were consolidated in Outagamie County. The district attorneys from the five counties where Spanbauer committed crimes testified Tuesday, as well. The agreement also stipulates that Spanbauer will be imprisoned away from the regular prison population at Oshkosh State Correctional Institution or at a similar institution that has a sex offender program. Zoesch said Spanbauer wants to be studied by psychiatrists in hopes of preventing others from committing such crimes. Zoesch acknowledged that police questioned Spanbauer up until Monday night about the 1992 disappearance of Laurie Depies, 20, who was last seen in Appleton. But Zoesch said Spanbauer claims to know nothing about that case or any others that he hasn't already confessed to. After Tuesday's hearing, the courthouse hallway was filled with television lights trained on relatives who were crying, people who were handing out a poem about Ronelle Eichstedt and others who were embracing. "It will never be over," said Cora Jones' aunt, Debbie Jones, of Waupaca. Jones wore a T-shirt printed with the smiling face of the murdered little girl. And behind her were police posters. One offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whomever shot Trudi Jeschke. But the others were for Laurie Depies and other missing women whose disappearances have not been solved. "We need to work to change the laws now," Debbie Jones said. "Because we know that there's more than just him out there." |
