Widow of murder victim charged as ‘party’ to homicide

TRIBUNE PHONOGRAH

Prosecutors in the Ken Juedes murder case have amended a homicide charge against the victim’s widow to suggest that she may not have acted alone as they originally believed.

At a hearing in Marathon County Circuit Court, Judge Mike Moran granted permission for the first degree homicide charge against Cindy Schulz-Juedes, 66, to be changed to include “as a party to a crime.” A charge of obstructing an officer was also added.

The amended charge comes three months after Judge Moran approved a motion by defense attorney Earl Gray to introduce a “third-party perpetrator defense,” which claims that five men carried out the 2006 murder of Ken Juedes.

Schulz-Juedes, who was arrested in November of 2019, is the only person who has been charged in the murder, but the prosecutors’ decision to amend the charge indicates that other suspects were involved.

In their motion to amend the charge, prosecutors said a “factual basis” for the amended charge was established in all of the investigatory documents provided to the defense attorney through the discovery process.

Gray, however, objected to the homicide charge being amended.

“Defense counsel has read the over 9,000 pages of discovery and has found nothing to support the amendment,” Gray wrote. “In fact, the theory for the last 15 years has been that my client personally committed the murder of her husband to collect insurance proceeds and other assets of her husband.”

In response, prosecutors said Gray has no legal basis to object to the amended charge and pointed out that he has no way of knowing what their theory is about the circumstances of the murder.

“The state is not required to provide the defense with its theory of the case prior to opening statements and has not done so,” said a court filing by assistant attorney general Robert Kaiser and district attorney Theresa Wetzsteon.

Judge Moran, at the May 27 motion hearing, sided with the prosecutors, saying that amending the charges was allowed based on what was presented in their motion.

“The state has leeway to do that,” he said. “In fact, they can amend the charges to conform to the evidence as long as it’s not prejudicial and there’s notice.”

Gray said he is OK with the charges being amended, but he questioned whether the jury can be told that they can convict his client as “a party to crime” if the prosecution fails to produce evidence at trial that she did, in fact, assist others in killing her husband.

In a May 7 court filing, prosecutors included proposed jury instructions related to the defendant meeting the definition of “a party to the crime” under state law. There are three ways this definition is met: directly committing the crime, intentionally aiding or abetting others or acting as a member of a conspiracy.

Gray said he will object to these jury instructions if no evidence is presented by the prosecution to support the theory.

“My argument is, if at the end of the trial, their whole theory is that she did it herself, then that instruction isn’t proper,” Gray said.

“Sounds like you’re writing your closing statement already,” Moran said to Gray.

After the charges were amended, Gray entered not guilty pleas to both counts.

Other motions ruled on: Several other motions came before Judge Moran last Thursday as the two sides continued to debate what evidence will be allowed at the trial scheduled for October of this year.

The judge conditionally approved or denied several witness statements given before the murder. He also issued tentative rulings regarding evidence of Cindy’s knowledge of insurance policy payouts and information about a securities fraud case Juedes was pursuing at the time of the murder.

“Everything here is subject to reconsideration given the context and the foundation that’s given by the evidence,” the judge told the attorneys.

A hearing was also scheduled for Aug. 15 to discuss any challenges to expert witnesses proposed by the prosecutors and the defense.

Gray said he doesn’t plan on calling an expert witnesses at this point, but he had not yet seen the result of DNA testing done at the end of last year.

Wetzsteon said they expect to get those results “any day now.”