February 09, 2004
Hirte Ordered to Stand Trial for Kopitske Murder
Full story: WBAY
A court commissioner ordered a Weyauwega High School honor student and star athlete to stand trial for murder. Gary Hirte, 18, is accused of killing Glenn Kopitske. Police say Kopitske was dead for several days before he was found in his rural Fremont home last August. Hirte smiled briefly at his relatives as he walked into the courtroom for Monday's preliminary hearing. Sitting right behind them were Kopitske's parents and relatives. Two important items led police to arrest Hirte. They were a recorded telephone conversation between Hirte and an ex-girlfriend in late January, and a set of keys that belonged to Kopitske that were found in Hirte's home. Winnebago County sheriff's detective Cherilynn Eischen testified about the phone conversation, "He had admitted several times he had killed Glenn Kopitske," she testified. "He stated that he had shot Glenn Kopitske in the back of the head with a 12-gauge shotgun, had stabbed him two times in the back and once in the heart." Earlier, detectives had told Action Two News the only person who could have known about Kopitske's fatal wounds was the killer because those details were not made public.Posted by stupefied
09:40 PM