GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – A pair of suspects have been sentenced in connection to the presumed murder of a Green Bay.
19-year-old Shawn Leitner and 19-year-old Brandon Guyton-Denn have both been convicted of reckless homicide following the disappearance of Jovanny Puga, whose body has never been found.
On February 25, 2017, both Leitner and Guyton-Denn beat Puga and dumped him in a Milwaukee river.
Court records show that Milwaukee County Judge Jeffrey Wagner sentenced both individuals to eight years in prison, while also placing them on extended supervision for seven years.
Jaleel Schultz is also charged for the murder, but has not been arrested, while Emma Brud has been sentenced to three years of probation for disposing of Puga’s clothes.
Investigators learned in March of 2017 of reports of a man beaten to death and thrown into the Milwaukee River at Lincoln Park, according to the criminal complaint.
The criminal complaint states that three of the four suspects in the case were arrested in March of 2017 when West Bend police stopped a vehicle that was reported stolen out of De Pere by Brud’s mother.
Internet searches of the suspects’ cellphones turned up phrases such as “Lincoln Park Milwaukee satellite view”, “Milwaukee deaths last night” and “Milwaukee deaths in the river.”
A photo of Puga was also found on one of the phones, copied from the Green Bay Police Department’s social media page, asking for the public’s help locating him.
The complaint says that, according to Brud, she and Guyton-Denn were dating and he “wanted revenge” on Puga over a dispute.
Brud was told by Guyton-Denn to bring Puga to Milwaukee, which she did.
Prosecuters say that she did it knowing he would be beaten.
The complaint reads that he as beaten near the river and forced to get undressed before being tossed in.
“(A witness) saw Guyton-Denn kicking Puga in the head. He saw Leitner and Schultz on either side of Puga’s body, kicking him in the sides,” says Bryan Bichler, Glendale Police Department detective.
The complaint says that Brud took Puga’s clothes to Green Bay and burned them.
