Jury sees Zocco loading car - but with what?
Defense says large travel bag didn’t contain Dwyer
Security cameras at his east side Milwaukee apartment building recorded Kris Zocco going to his car in the parking garage at least three times later in the day prosecutors believe he killed Kelly Dwyer.
Milwaukee Police Det. Erik Gulbrandson testified at Zocco’s trial Friday that in one frame, if you zoom in, you can see into the open trunk of Zocco’s black 2011 Audi A4 and notice a gray object matching the description of a large travel golf bag he owned.
Later, he’s seen stuffing what looked like a baseball gear bag into the trunk, and even later carrying a small bag of golf clubs to his car.
At 6:15 p.m. Oct. 11, 2013, the Audi exits the parking garage and doesn’t return until Sunday.
Earlier, jurors had earlier seen video of the couple entering the lobby at Lafayette Tower after 3 a.m. that day. Prosecutors believe Dwyer, 27, suffocated during asphyxiation sex with Zocco in his 18th-floor apartment and that he put her body in the golf travel bag and rolled it to his car.
The other bags may have Dwyer’s clothes and a shower curtain and rugs from his second bathroom, where investigators believe Zocco, 43, cleaned Dwyer’s body before fitting it into the golf bag and then disposing of it in rural Jefferson County, where it was finally discovered 19 months later, too decomposed to allow a cause of death determination. He says Dwyer left the apartment on her own that morning about 9 a.m., and he was moving excess sports equipment to his mother’s house in Richfield later that day.
A key part of the state’s case is that while Dwyer is seen entering Zocco’s building, there is no security video that shows her leaving.
Zocco’s attorneys tried to raise doubt about that, introducing evidence of another surveillance camera detectives never reviewed, and of an exit to the street that some detectives weren’t aware of.
Zocco wasn’t the only person Dwyer knew in the apartments. She also nannied for a young couple there three days a week and had a key card from them to enter the building.
Dwyer’s cocaine connection
Jurors also heard more about Dwyer on Friday.
Royce Nash testified that he met Dwyer in April 2013 at a coffee shop on Brady Street and they became friends, had sex at times and that he provided her with cocaine. Nash said whenever she came to get the cocaine, she arrived in a black Audi.
Nash said at one point he asked her if she was OK since she seemed to be calling for drugs more and more often. He said she replied, “It’s fine, I’m with friends.”
He said he last saw Dwyer on Oct. 10. She had called again for cocaine and came to his apartment that evening. He said he had been unable to get any for her, and she left empty-handed. He said he walked her out and saw the black Audi waiting for her.
Zocco’s trial continues Monday. He is charged with first-degree reckless homicide, strangulation and hiding a corpse. The trial will also cover a recent charge that he solicited witness intimidation.