Motion Hearing For Suspected Killer Of Berit Beck

A Fond du Lac County judge today will make some decisions about whether a 63-year-old Kenosha man will stand trial a second time for allegedly killing Berit Beck. Judge Robert Wirtz will rule on several motions regarding the 1st degree murder charge Dennis Brantner is facing for allegedly murdering the 18-year-old Sturtevant woman. Brantner’s lawyer, Craig Powell, is asking the judge to acquit his client saying to try Brantner again would be double jeopardy. District Attorney Eric Toney wants another chance to try Brantner and has new evidence, testimony of a former girlfriend of Brantner’s, to offer at trial. A jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict during a trial in June and was dismissed. Judge Gary Sharpe who presided over that trial recused himself from the case in September. Beck’s van was found in Fond du Lac parking lot in July of 1990. Her badly-decomposed body was found six weeks later in a ditch outside of Waupun.