Pubdate: Tue, 09 Apr 2002
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2002 The Capital Times
Contact:  http://www.captimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/73
Author: Mike Miller

PAUSER TO SERVE 23 YEARS

Judge Rejects Innocent Claim

Genevieve Pauser, 19, will serve at least 23 years in prison for her role 
in the murder of Kyle Hachmeister last year, but the emotion on display at 
the sentencing hearing showed that the pain was still fresh for both families.

"There is a dark cloud hanging over us that we are never going to be able 
to dispel," said Kathleen Frisch, a retired Madison police detective who is 
Kyle's step-aunt.

Members of Pauser's family also testified at length Monday, saying that 
drug use by all of those involved eventually caused the murder, and before 
that had brought negative changes to Pauser.

"I truly believe that the real reason we are here today is because of 
drugs," said Faye Metcalfe, a nurse who is Pauser's aunt. "Kyle was dealing 
drugs. All (the others) were involved with drugs."

In a courtroom jammed with members of the families of Hachmeister and 
Pauser, Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust rejected the pleas of 
Pauser and her family for a minimum sentence and said there was no question 
of her guilt in the murder.

"Ms. Pauser, your protestations of innocence here today ring as hollow as 
they did at trial," the judge said. "There's no question but that you were 
involved from the beginning."

Pauser testified at trial that she was not at the scene and had nothing to 
do with crime, and she continued to take that stance Monday.

"My punishment is waking up every morning and going to sleep every night 
knowing that if I had known what was going on I could have stopped it," she 
said.

"I do know I would never dream of hurting Kyle or anyone," she said, adding 
that if she had known "that something like this was going to happen there 
would have been two dead people because I would have died trying to stop it."

Lorraine Randall, Kyle's mother, was not impressed with Pauser's statement.

"She didn't say she was sorry. All she talked about was herself. She wasn't 
remorseful at all," Randall said.

She and her husband, Michael, were awakened by Kyle's screams on Feb. 21, 
2001, and ran to his room, finding him in a pool of blood, gasping the last 
breaths of his life.

"I relive that fateful night over and over," Lorraine Randall said at 
Monday's hearing, recounting how she cannot put from her mind the image of 
her son's last moments.

"My only living child was taken from me," she said, "In this most brutal 
way possible."

Pauser and Jeremy Greene, who allegedly stabbed Hachmeister to death, were 
convicted in January of being parties to the crime of first-degree 
intentional homicide for what the judge called "a needless and senseless 
slaughter of a young man."

Both were given mandatory life sentences. Monday's hearing was simply to 
set the first date on which Pauser may apply for extended release, formerly 
known as parole. Under state law, a minimum of 20 years must be served, but 
the judge is free to set a date for initial application for extended 
supervision beyond that, or deny it altogether.

Assistant District Attorney Chris Genda argued for a minimum of 30 years, 
while defense attorney Mark Frank recommended a minimum of 20 years. Foust 
chose 23 years as suggested by a Department of Corrections pre-sentence report.

The initial plot, which also included Corey Ellis and Lindsey Kopp, both 
19, as participants, was to steal the drugs and money the group believed 
Kyle would have in his backpack. There had been no talk of causing him any 
physical harm.

But Greene brought a knife with him when the four drove to the Hachmeister 
home, and all the others knew he had it, the judge said. He added that 
while Pauser was not in the home when Greene killed Hachmeister, she had 
been instrumental in planning to rob him.

Ellis and Kopp struck plea bargains with the prosecution and testified 
against Greene and Pauser. Ellis was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 
years of extended supervision while Kopp was put on probation for 15 years 
and ordered to serve two years in jail.

According to trial testimony, the four were talking about robbing someone 
for drugs or money when Pauser said, "why not Kyle?"

Pauser and Hachmeister had been friends for several years and she had often 
visited his home and spent time with him and his family. That relationship 
made her involvement in Hachmeister's murder all the more unthinkable for 
his family.

Prosecutors say the four decided to rob Hachmeister as he returned his 
family's Doncaster Drive home on a Saturday night, but that plan went awry 
when Ellis and Greene didn't show up in time because they were smoking 
marijuana.

The four then hatched a new plot for the following night and Ellis and 
Greene sneaked through a window into Hachmeister's room in the early 
morning hours of Feb. 19. Ellis, using a cigarette lighter to provide 
light, found Hachmeister's backpack, grabbed it, and went back out. When 
Hachmeister awoke, Greene stabbed him in the chest seven times, prosecutors say.
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