Kenosha is one of the two counties where, authorities said, Zelich told police he had killed 21-year-old Jenny Gamez, of Cottage Grove, Oregon, and 37-year-old Laura Simonson, accidentally during sexual encounters.
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The Wisconsin jury will be allowed to hear details about both murder cases.
That’s the trial that starts Monday, FOX 6 reports.
The trial here will present evidence about both women’s deaths, after prosecutors successfully argued that it will help them show that Zelich meant to kill the women, and that he lured them to meetings with the goal of doing so.
Zelich’s attorney, Jonathan Smith, said his client decided he would rather plead guilty than go to trial. He picked her up at the Milwaukee airport and they drove to a Kenosha hotel, where they spent several days.
Court records and testimony said, Zelich met Gamez online and asked her to come to Wisconsin.
He also told the investigators that he put Gamez in her suitcase and brought it to his West Allis apartment, where he stashed her corpse in his home refrigerator. Her body was found along a Wisconsin highway in August 2012. The women’s remains were found in suitcases along a highway near Lake Geneva in June 2014.
Stevin Zelich, a 54-year old former police officer of Wisconsin is charge with first degree murder intentional homicide and hiding dead bodies.
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He also faces two hiding-a-corpse felonies in Walworth County, Wisconsin, where the bodies were found. A status conference for that case is scheduled for February 12.
