Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
One of the suspects in the Iron County murder of a Lac du Flambeau tribal member is being sought on a fugitive warrant.
A Vilas County bench warrant for the arrest of James Lussier, 19, of Woodruff, was issued by Vilas County Judge Neal Nielsen on Jan. 23, according to automated court records.
The records show Lussier is scheduled to be sentenced in Vilas County Court for felony possession of narcotic drugs on Monday. He also faces other lesser charges in two other Vilas County cases.
Lussier was charged along with four other suspects on Wednesday in the death of Wayne Valliere Jr.
The other four defendants are in custody, with two held in the Iron County Jail at Hurley.
The five are charged with being a party to the crime of murder and hiding a corpse.
It’s alleged they drove Valliere to a spot on Swamp Lake Road, north of Mercer, in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, first beating him and then shooting him eight times. The suspects believed Valliere was a confidential informant, according to the criminal complaint.
Valliere was reported missing to Lac du Flambeau police on Christmas Day. He subsequently became the subject of a missing persons investigation led by the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Department of Criminal Investigation, along with numerous other law enforcement agencies.
Valliere’s body was found by investigators on New Year’s Day.
Assistant Attorney General Richard Dufour, from the DOJ, is the lead special prosecutor in the case. On Wednesday, he also filed charges against Richard F.A. Allen, 27, of Lac du Flambeau; Evan T. Oungst, 27, of Arbor Vitae; Curtis A. Wolfe, 26, of Lac du Flambeau, and Joseph D. Lussier, 26, of Lac du Flambeau, in Iron County Circuit Court.
