Judge to rule on Decker case Nov. 25

A judge will decide Nov. 25 whether statements made by a Rhinelander teen accused of attempting to cover up her boyfriend’s alleged role in a Tomahawk homicide will be admissible in court.

Katie L. Decker, 17, is seeking to have her statements to police suppressed on the grounds the remarks were not free and voluntary.

Decker is charged with a single felony count of harboring or aiding a felon. She is accused of hiding bloody clothes allegedly worn by her then boyfriend, Seth Louis, when he allegedly stabbed Tracy Maurer to death on April 6, 2007.

Maurer, 42, Louis’ co-worker at the Rhinelander Taco John’s restaurant, was found dead in her home at 211 W. Merrill Avenue in Tomahawk. According to a medical examiner she was stabbed some 70 times.

Louis, 26, of Rhinelander, has confessed to killing Maurer during a burglary.

Decker, who has also been charged with helping Louis burglarize two Rhinelander businesses, was in court Monday for an evidentiary hearing on her motion to suppress statements and for an initial appearance on the burglary charge.

The hearing on the burglary charge was brief as the case must be transferred to another judge. Decker appeared Monday before Judge Patrick O’Melia, who had to recuse himself from the case because he was Oneida County district attorney when that office first began prosecuting Decker on the aiding a felon charge.

A preliminary hearing in the burglary case will be scheduled after a new judge is assigned.

In that matter, Decker is accused of helping Louis steal computers, cash and food from Coffee Beans Etc and the UPS Store back in March of 2007.

Decker is currently being held in the Lincoln County jail on $50,000 cash bail in connection with a third criminal charge of felony murder. In that case, she and another Rhinelander woman, Heather Ward, 19, are accused of plotting with Louis to burglarize Tracy Maurer’s home. Louis claims the two women helped him plot the crime and gave him knives to use in vandalizing the home. He has testified that he didn’t expect Maurer to be home and ended up fatally stabbing her after she surprised him.

He claims the trio wanted to burglarize Maurer’s home as a form of revenge. Maurer, Louis said, had been threatening to tell police about his criminal activities.

Decker and Ward are due back in Lincoln County Court Dec. 1 on that case.

The motion hearing on the admissibility of the statements consisted of additional testimony from Tomahawk Police Chief Don Johnson and Special Agent Ron Ebben of the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Johnson and Ebben previously gave testimony about their interviews with Decker during a hearing in April but another statement came to light a few months ago (captured by Johnson’s pocket digital recorder) causing the need for additional testimony.

The testimony was related to when Decker was given her Miranda rights and whether she ever asked to speak to an attorney.

Vilas County Judge Neal Nielsen, who is hearing the aiding a felon case, said he understands that all parties are waiting for a ruling on the statements.

“I know everyone is anxious for a ruling and I’m anxious to move past this as well. We’ll see you for a ruling on Nov. 25,” he said.