Victim's kindness highlighted at his killer's sentencing

WAUSAU — The legacy of Kerby Kniess, who was remembered soon after his 2012 murder as a kind and gentle person, played a central role at the Tuesday sentencing for the man convicted of swinging the bat that ended Kniess' life as he slept in his home.

Zachary Froehlich, 20, of Wausau will spend 35 years behind bars on a charge of first-degree reckless homicide in the well-known bowler's death.

"Mr. Froehlich, you did make a choice, and it was a life sentence for Mr. Kniess. ... When you took a life, Mr. Froehlich, you took the life of a good man who has contributed a lot to this community," Marathon County Judge Jill Falstad said before sentencing Froehlich to prison followed by 15 years of extended supervision.

Kniess' death shocked the community and left his family members and friends heartbroken.

He has been missed every day for two years at Day's Bowl-A-Dome where he worked, his friend and decades-long co-worker Dean Day said at the hearing. Day told Falstad that Kniess taught Special Olympics bowlers and loved sports. Day couldn't believe that Kniess "ever had an enemy in the world."

Kniess' sister, Kitty Lange of Gleason, said her mother could not attend the hearing because of the effect the death of her first-born child has had on her life. And the hardest part for the family? Knowing that her brother's death was avoidable.

"Kerby has been handed the harshest sentence of all," she told Falstad. "It is a choice he did not make for himself, but one Mr. Froehlich made for him."

A senseless death

When Kniess fell asleep on the night of June 18, 2012, after watching a Milwaukee Brewers game with a friend, neither he nor the couple with whom he had lived for about two years knew by the next morning their lives would all tragically change.

Police said Froehlich and Warren Krohn , 23, of Wausau went to the detached garage where Kniess was living to rob him — something they had done before without awakening him. But this time, the two drunken young men took a baseball bat with them, just to make sure he didn't wake up while they were stealing his wallet, said Marathon County District Attorney Ken Heimerman .

Froehlich hit Kniess in the head with the bat four of five times, hard enough to cause injuries that a forensic pathologist who examined his body equated to the trauma he normally sees in car crashes. His injuries were so severe that Kniess ' family was not sure they could even have an open casket at the funeral, Heimerman said.

Krohn said of the beating that Kniess "never saw it coming," according to court records. The sleeping man was as defenseless as an infant, Heimerman said.

The pair left the garage with their spoils, knowing Kniess might be alive or dead, he said.

"This almost 50-year-old man, Kerby Kniess , died for cigarettes, liquor and $21," Heimerman said, listing the property taken in the robbery.

The couple in whose garage Kniess was staying found him the next morning when one of them entered the garage at about 7 a.m . to wake Kniess and watch SportsCenter on ESPN, as the men did on most mornings. But when he came into the garage with a 12-pack of soda, the man found a large pool of blood around Kniess ' head.

The pair described Kniess as a "friendly, social person," who was not hostile to anyone, according to court records.

A 'trophy' bat

"I know who did that," a friend of Froehlich's told police next day, pointing in the direction of the garage scene.

He said he had called Froehlich the night of the killing looking to hang out but Froehlich told him to wait until Froehlich finished "some business" first. Froehlich and Krohn called 15 or 20 minutes later to say they were stopping by the friend's house on North Sixth Avenue, according to court documents. When they did arrive at the house, Froehlich was carrying a bat and Krohn had in his hand a bottle of liquor, the friend told police.

The two told him they had just beaten a man but did not say that he had died, according to court records.

The friend said he asked why they would keep a bat he thought had blood on it, to which Froehlich replied, "I'm going to keep it as a trophy," court records said.

Falstad cited that quote in her explanation of the sentence.

"It is absolutely challenging to consider that that was how Mr. Froehlich was thinking of this crime, to keep a memento," she said.

The larger pattern

Kniess ' death was part of a much larger pattern of law-breaking, Heimerman said. Froehlich was charged with 41 crimes between the time he was 16 1/2 years old and 18 1/2 he said.

"He is an incredibly young man, who has a record that stands up against most experienced criminals," Heimerman said.

One of those crimes happened in the hours before Kniess ' murder. Another young man was talking on his phone when Froehlich attacked and choked him, unprovoked, prosecutors said.

Froehlich's crimes had an impact on the wider community, Heimerman said, reading from a copy of the Wausau Daily Herald from the time of Kniess ' death. The story focused on the community impact and quoted a resident as saying, "I grew up in Wausau . You used to feel safe."

Brian Bennett, Froehlich's attorney, did not dispute the long history of crimes for which Froehlich was charged. But he said his client created a memorial to Kniess in the jail that read, "Rest in peace Kerby K. Kniess ," and asked that Falstad sentence Froehlich to 15 years in prison.

Should have known better

Froehlich's family members said he was a well-loved child who grew up in a stable home.

"This is the hardest thing our family has had to go through also because he is loved so much," said his his stepmother, Sylvia Froehlich of Wausau .

He volunteered, helped his grandparents, excelled at soccer and drawing.

"He just has a lot of talents," Sylvia Froehlich told the court in a statement from her and his father.

Falstad said before she sentenced him that by all accounts, Froehlich had grown up in a good family and was raised to have values. Clearly, she said, he has family support and they love him. His upbringing shows he should have known better, she said.

'The first apology goes to Kerby '

Froehlich knew this was different from any other crime he had committed, Bennett said. When Froelich began to sober up and realize what he had done that night, he met with a friend and talked about the terrible things that had happened before getting together with other friends.

"He wanted to say goodbye," Bennett said.

He argued that Froehlich took responsibility for his crimes by turning himself in to police knowing full well what the consequences would be. Bennett said the case should act as an example of what can go horribly wrong when someone allows alcohol to influence their decisions in life.

"This wasn't a crime of anger," Bennett said. "It was a crime of drunken stupidity."

On what would have been Kniess ' 50 th birthday, Froehlich asked his mother to post a letter he had written on his Facebook wall. It read, in part, "If it could happen, I would go back to that dark and evil night and take it all back," Bennett said.

Bennett asked the court to consider Froehlich's remorse and that he had cooperated with the investigation "from Day 1."

Before he was sentenced, Froehlich apologized to Kniess, Kniess' family, the couple who found his body and his own family for what he had done.

"The first apology goes to Kerby," Froehlich said. "The man should be here right now."

Alison Dirr can be reached at 715-845-0658. Find her on Twitter as @AlisonDirr