Gerald Turner appears before Fond du Lac County court, March 8, 2024. (Zoom)
FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A trial to determine if the state will be allowed to keep the “Halloween killer” in custody has been postponed to December.
Gerald Turner, 74, was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing 9-year-old Lisa Ann French while she was trick-or-treating in Fond du Lac in 1973. Her body was found a few days later in the town of Taycheedah. His prison term complete, the state filed suit in 2018, seeking to have Turner deemed a sexually violent offender, and ordered to remain at a secure mental health facility under the Chapter 980 sexual predator law. His attorneys have opposed the request and want him released. Six years later, that process is still going on.
An April 16 trial date was set last August, anticipating that psychiatric evaluations would be done in time for the trial. With one not yet completed, other scheduling issues, and a desire for a jury questionnaire to narrow the expected pool of 100 prospective jurors, the parties all agreed to reschedule the trial until Dec. 9
Turner is currently held at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston.
After serving 17 years in prison for a 38-year sentence, Turner was released from prison in 1992 but returned to prison that same year following a court decision challenging calculation of time served. Turner was again released on parole in 1998 but returned to prison in 2003 for 15 years after pornographic images were found on his computer.
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