Keith Benson, Guy Buck, of Antigo, and James Dulak are shown in police photos. They are linked to the murder of a Menominee, Mich. man in May, 2008, in the home above. |
Michigan murder trial underway today, has deep ties to Antigo area Oct. 13, 2009 A trial in a Michigan murder case dating to May 12, 2008, got underway this morning with a cast of Antigo and Langlade County people involved.
The trial is for James Dulak, 46, of Weston, who is charged with homicide-open murder and as a habitual offender in the death of Mark Keller, a resident of rural Menominee, Mich.
The ties to this area run deep. Dulak visited here a number of times, another man charged in the crime, Guy Buck, 30, is from Antigo and Keith Benson, 24, lived in Hatley. He will reportedly plead guilty to second-degree murder.
The opening arguments are unfolding today in the Menominee courtroom in a trial that is expected to take up to two weeks.
Seven men and seven women were selected Monday from a jury panel of 125 and they were in place today for the start of the trial. Two of the jurors will serve as alternates and the panel will not be sequestered.
The three men were arrested in Antigo on May 12, 2008 after the Langlade County Sheriff’s Department got a report from an informant that he had been contacted about the sale of a number of guns.
Concerned about the number of the weapons, he contacted authorities. And they tracked down the men with the guns and made what are considered to be routine arrests — never dreaming that the men had been involved in a Michigan murder. They were cited for having firearms as felons and possible drug possession.
But it didn’t take long for things to change drastically.
Authorities started looking for cases of missing guns and put the information out to law enforcement departments in the Upper Midwest. The Menominee authorities responded quickly about the stolen items. In addition to the missing guns, they had the badly beaten corpse of Keller on their hands.
According to Michigan documents, law enforcement agents from Menominee and an officer from the Langlade County Sheriff’s Department interviewed the Antigo man who was arrested in the car with the guns.
He told the officer that he and two other men drove from central Wisconsin to somewhere — a location that turned out to be Menominee — where they got guns and a quantity of pills. In the process, he said, a man got beat up.
According to details of the crime, Misty Lang went to see her brother, Mark Keeler, at his home on Bay du Noc Road on May 12 and got no response from a door knock and went inside.
She found her brother in a pool of blood on the floor and fled, calling police from a friend’s home.
Michigan police found that there was no forced entry, but the inside of the mobile home had been ransacked, plants tipped over, cupboard doors opened and the contents on the floor.
Pending the outcome of the trial, Langlade County Sheriff Bill Greening said he is pleased his personnel and department played a role in solving the crime.
“It was a good piece of police work,” the sheriff said, offering a salute to the informant who helped lead to the arrest.
The sheriff’s department dispatched two officers to testify at the opening of the trial today.
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