Fricke found guilty in homicide of officer
Jury finds man intentionally killed Rittner in February
After five days of testimony from nearly 30 witnesses, a jury needed little more than an hour Friday to convict Jordan Fricke of first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting death of Milwaukee Police Officer Matthew Rittner.
As Judge Jeffrey Wagner read the verdict, Fricke put his head down on the defense table and sobbed.
Rittner’s wife, Caroline, who is pregnant with the couple’s second child, was surrounded by support in the courtroom gallery, including her husband’s fellow police officers.
“The emotion is that sense of relief,” Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said minutes after meeting with Rittner’s family and officers following the verdict.
The fatal shooting of Rittner was the third on-duty death of a Milwaukee police officer within a span of eight months. The deaths rocked the Milwaukee Police Department, which until last June had not seen an officer killed in the line of duty since 1996.
Fricke, 27, never denied firing the shots that killed Rittner, 35, who was using a battering ram while serving a search warrant at Fricke’s south side home Feb. 6.
During the trial, he and his attorney, Michael Chernin, said he acted in selfdefense and as soon as he realized it was the police, he dropped his weapon and surrendered.
Prosecutors countered that Fricke had to know it was the police because
they loudly announced their presence before Rittner rammed the door.
District Attorney John Chisholm praised the jury for its evaluation of the case and said body camera evidence likely helped them reach their decision quickly.
“We’re grateful that the jury recognized the evidence for what it was, which was pretty strong conclusive evidence that Matt Rittner’s life was taken without any justification without any need. And it’s this type of tragedy that occurs too often in the community, but when it happens to a police officer it just has such a deep impact on the entire community,” Chisholm said.
Chernin declined to speak with reporters after the verdict.
In reaching the decision, the jury chose not to exercise the option of convicting on lesser charges, such as second-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide.
Fricke will be sentenced Aug. 29 and faces a mandatory life prison sentence on the intentional homicide charge. The jury also convicted him of two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and keeping a drug house.
Fricke takes stand in his own defense
On Friday morning, Fricke took the stand and told jurors he heard what sounded like gunshots coming through his front door from unknown assailants and that is why he fired four rounds from an assault-style weapon, one of which killed Rittner.
He said he later learned the sound was the battering ram.
Under questioning from his attorney, he relayed why he first bought a gun in 2013 — for protection — saying his neighborhood wasn’t safe and he was following advice from then-Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.
Clarke aired a public service message that year telling residents to arm themselves because police response is too slow. Chernin entered the audio recording into evidence.
Fricke also said his neighbors and friends had been the victims of burglaries and home invasions, including one instance where people pretended to be the police.
Assistant District Attorney Grant Huebner zeroed in on that testimony, which echoed Fricke’s initial interviews with police after the shooting. In those interviews, Fricke said he thought people were “breaking in” and he had heard of suspects pretending to be the police.
Huebner pointed out Fricke testified he only heard the sound of booms and not officers yelling “police.”
“None of that about whether or not there were fake police would matter unless you yourself heard ‘police,’ ” Huebner said.
He also noted Friday’s testimony was the first time Fricke said he thought the loud noise was caused by gunfire.
Closing arguments: ‘Scared senseless’
On the stand, Fricke spoke softly and teared up at several points as he answered questions about his mother’s death when he was a child and when his attorney asked how he felt knowing he had killed Rittner.
“Not good at all,” Fricke answered, later adding he was shocked to learn he had killed someone.
Huebner then brought up jail calls Fricke made three days after the shooting.
In the calls, Fricke told someone to go find the hidden thousands of dollars that police missed during the first search.
By that point, Huebner said, Fricke had “moved on from that emotional response” over Rittner’s death.
Fricke said he needed the money to pay for a lawyer and said he still “can’t believe” what happened to Rittner.
In closing arguments, Fricke’s attorney questioned the underlying basis for the search warrant and pointed out no drugs or illegal guns were found.
“He is scared senseless,” Chernin said of his client. The no-knock warrant caused “chaos” and Fricke could not hear the shouts of “police” and “search warrant” over the sound of his barking dogs, Chernin said.
But Huebner challenged that, referring repeatedly to testimony from Fricke’s girlfriend who in the house at the time and said she heard the officers’ shouts. Body camera footage also captured the yelling and neighbors heard it too.
“Everybody hears it,” Huebner said.