Prosecuting attorneys convinced a Dane County judge Wednesday to order a trial for the University of Wisconsin student charged with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide that occurred last June.
Meng-Ju “Mark” Wu, 19, is a native of Taiwan and accused in the shooting-deaths of Jason McGuigan, 28, Dustin Wilson, 17 and Daniel Swanson, 25. None of the victims were affiliated with UW.
Dane County District Attorneys Gretchen Hayward and Karie Cattanach used circumstantial evidence to convince Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust there is probable cause that Wu is guilty of the murders.
Evidence included a gun case with Wu’s fingerprints that McGuigan bought last June, along with a gun that was used as the murder weapon. Also, state lab DNA tests showed that a pair of sandals found near Wu’s Gilman Street apartment had spots of Wilson’s blood. Police speculated that Wu committed the June 26 shooting of three roommates in a Verona duplex due to gambling debts incurred during Wu’s relationship with McGuigan.
Verona police chief Bernie Coughlin told the Wisconsin State Journal earlier this fall that it was unclear whether Wilson and Swanson were involved with gambling or were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court the day after his July 6 arrest in New York, McGuigan helped Wu place bets with an offshore gambling company in the Bahamas.
Wu told police that he had lost $15,000 gambling between April and June 2003 and had withdrawn $72,000 from his bank account between December and June.
The Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal contributed to this article.
