By Kellen Olshefski
staff writer
The case of a 54-year-old former West Allis police officer charged with dumping the bodies of two women in the Town of Geneva in 2014 is scheduled for a 12-person jury trial in October.
However, according to court records, it appears the case may be headed toward a new plea bargain, after a judge declined to impose a sentence in the case last week.
Steven M. Zelich was charged with two counts of hiding a corpse – a Class G felony carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years for each count – and was sentenced to 35 years in state prison after he was found guilty in Kenosha County Circuit Court of one count of first degree reckless homicide and one count of hiding a corpse earlier this year.
Zelich pleaded guilty to the homicide charge earlier this year in the death of 19-year-old Jenny Gamez of Oregon state.
According to online court records, the Walworth County District Attorney’s office changed a plea agreement prior to last Wednesday’s hearing. District Attorney Dan Necci had said after talking with law enforcement, they felt it was the best agreement to get Zelich to Olmsted County, Minn., to face charges relating to the death of 37-year-old Laura Simonson of Farmington, Minn. Simonson’s body was among the two Zelich is accused of dumping in Walworth County.
The initial agreement called for a plea to one count of hiding a corpse and to dismiss and read-in the second. The new agreement called for pleas to both counts with a recommended sentence of five years of confinement, concurrent with the sentence already given by Kenosha County, according to online court records.
Records show that Zelich’s attorney informed him of the reasons for the change to the agreement and that Zelich agreed to the new agreement.
However, according to online court records, Walworth County Circuit Court Judge David Reddy had some concerns with the new plea agreement and was not willing to proceed to sentencing at last week’s hearing, giving the attorneys two options – to take the plea agreement, order a presentencing investigation and set a separate sentencing date, or to schedule the case for a 12-person jury trial.
Court records said Zelich’s attorney didn’t believe either side wanted to set the case for trial, however, he felt more time was needed to be able to discuss the subject with Zelich and recommended setting the case for trial.
According to online court records, if the two parties were to reach an agreement prior to the final pre-trial, scheduled for Sept. 28, or the jury trial dates, they could contact the court clerk to schedule a hearing.
Zelich was arrested in 2014 after a highway department employee discovered the bodies of Gamez and Simonson in separate suitcases along North Como Road in the Town of Geneva while mowing grass.
According to authorities, Zelich had met both women online and has maintained that both deaths were accidental and occurred during consensual sexual encounters involving choking.
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