Posted: 4/26/05
No murder solicitation charges filed
The La Crosse, Wisconsin, District Attorneyís Office will not charge Jessica L. Burmester, 23, Caledonia, with solicitation to commit murder.
Authorities had been planning to charge her after putting together a case that she plotted to kill her father.
Assistant La Crosse District Attorney Bronwyn Woyach said in La Crosse County Circuit Court that the overall case was too weak to pursue.
A co-worker at the Maid Rite Cafe in La Crosse Cafe where they both worked reported last October that Burmester would give him $20,000 from her fatherís life insurance policy if the co-worker killed him.
Burmester claimed she told the man he could have some of the money if her father died, but that she did not ask him to kill her father. She said she was joking at the time.
At her April 19 court appearance, Burmester was charged with conspiracy to deliver cocaine, aiding felons, and obstructing officers. in a case involving her boyfriend, Jeremiah Shefelbine, also of Caledonia.
Shefelbine is in the La Crosse County Jail on charges of solicitation to commit perjury as a habitual criminal and conspiracy to deliver cocaine as a habitual criminal.
Burmester is accused of obstructing an officer by lying about facts in the case and by passing on information from Shefelbine to another person.
Shefelbine, 29, allegedly told Burmester to tell another person to retrieve two ounces of cocaine to sell to pay attorney fees. The criminal complaint also states that Burmester was asked by Shefelbine to have the other person retrieve $2,000 in cash from behind a refrigerator and bring it to him in jail so that he could pay his attorney.
Jones pleads not guilty
Edward Jones, 31, La Crosse, entered a not guilty plea on April 20 on two charges of selling crack cocaine. He was arrested on February 5 of La Crescent.
Caledonia Argus
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