GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ)- George Burch was found guilty of the 2016 murder of Nicole VanderHeyden.
The jury presented an unanimous vote after a little over three hours of deliberations, weighing out what ended up being eight days of testimony.
After the case, District Attorney David Lasee said justice was served.
“We are satisfied with the jury’s work,” he said. “They did exactly what we asked them to do, which was use their reason, use their judgement, and they came to the correct conclusion.”
Closing arguments on Thursday, pointed to DNA evidence of Burch and motive for VanderHeyden’s boyfriend Doug Detrie, who the defense said was the real killer.
District Attorney David Lasee told the jury, that the defense provided two different Doug Detries.
“Is he the drunk stupid guy at the bar, or is he a cold calculating killer?”
Defense attorney Lee Schuchart told the jury that the state’s case left some holes, and one of them is a murder weapon.
” No handgun was ever recovered, this missing murder weapon was never recovered. Are they in the pond behind the Detrie house? Are they in the East River? It is not our job to tell you that.”
Assistant District Attorney Mary Karrigan-Mares said the story had holes and the biggest was that Burch did not report Detrie, because he did not want to snitch.
“You could identify that killer and take him off the street. You could make yourself safe by making sure police have the right man.”
Mares also urged the jury to look at the information that VanderHeyden left behind in her struggle and death, since that is the one person they could not hear from the last two weeks.
“George Burch sought to silence Nicole, but she does speak to you. In her struggles, she tells you the truth. In her fight for life, she can be heard.”
In her argument, Mares said that VanderHeyden’s clothes that were shown to jury Thursday, indicate that her clothes were on at the time of the murder, which goes against the story testified by Burch.
“Nicole’s bloody clothes prove that she was not naked when she was murdered, and prove beyond all doubt that the defendant’s count was total fiction.”
District Attorney Lasee told the jury that if Burch was innocent, he had a chance to clear his name.
“You don’t call because you are guilty, and you know that you are going to be found guilty. If he really didn’t do this, whose DNA did he suspect was going to be on that body? The killer, you alert them right away.”
A look back at the trial.
Day 1: Opening Statements and Body Discovery
Day 4: Focus Turns To Evidence
Day 5: Burch Is Brought Up In Testimony
Day 6: Close Friends of Burch Testify
Day 7: State’s Final Witnesses Discuss Fitbit and Cell Phone Data
