In the first triple homicide in Madison in 31 years, a UW
student has been charged with killing three Verona roommates.
Meng-Ju “Mark” Wu, 19, a resident alien from Taiwan, is scheduled
to appear in a Queens County court Aug. 5, where he will fight his
extradition from New York to Madison.
Prosecutors will attempt to show cause for having Wu returned to
Dane County, where he would face three counts of first degree
intentional homicide.
“Our office has filed three counts of intentional homicide
(against Wu),” said Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard.
“If, as we anticipate, the judge in New York decides to extradite
him, he would face those charges in Wisconsin.”
If convicted, Wu could face life in prison.
Police speculate the shooting deaths of Jason
McGuigan, 28, Dustin Wilson, 17, and Daniel Swanson, 25 on June 26
were related to gambling debts Wu may have incurred.
According to a criminal complaint filed in the
Dane County Circuit Court the day after his July 6 arrest in New
York, Wu had been helped by McGuigan with placing bets with an
off-shore gambling company in the Bahamas.
Wu told police he had lost $15,000 on gambling
between April and June 2003 and he had withdrawn $72,000 from his
bank account between December and June.
Investigators are still working to solidify a
motive and find what they believe is the murder weapon, a 9mm
handgun that McGuigan allegedly bought from a Sun Prairie gun
dealer June 6.
The gun’s case was found in a dumpster near
Wu’s 114 W. Gilman St. apartment along with a sandal with blood
matching Wilson’s.
Verona Police Chief Bernie Coughlin told the
The Wisconsin State Journal it is unclear whether Wilson and
Swanson were involved with gambling or were just in the wrong place
at the wrong time.
The victims were found just before 3 p.m. on
June 26. Autopsies showed that McGuigan and Swanson had each been
shot twice and Wilson three times.
Before his arrest, Wu was brought back from
New York on a material witness warrant and was held on $2 million
bail as a material witness in a June 30 hearing.
However, the law prevents someone from being
arrested after being brought in on a material witness warrant, and
Wu was returned to New York, where he said he was visiting his
aunt.
He had a flight to Taiwan scheduled for July 1
to visit his parents, a trip he told police was planned before the
shootings. Prosecutors would have faced difficulty if he had gone
because the United States has no extradition treaty with
Taiwan.
Wu was a full-time student in spring 2003
majoring in Chinese and was registered for the fall as a junior,
according to UW spokesman John Lucas.
Lucas also said the university had little
information about Wu and that the three victims had “no ties” to
the university.
Wu has lived in the U.S. for the past several
years and went to high school in Delaware. Wu’s Madison landlord
noted that he had no issues concerns with his former tenant during
his stay, but would not comment further.
Fellow students in the campus-area
neighborhood where he lived said they didn’t know him, nor did
members of the Taiwanese Student Association, which serves as a
resource for international students from Taiwan, The State
Journal reported.
More than 50 people from 11 Dane County law
enforcement agencies and the FBI have been involved in the
case.
