Court: Koepp was properly convicted in triple homicide

A Wisconsin appeals court says a Janesville man was properly convicted of killing his neighbor and her teenage children.

A jury convicted James Koepp in 2010 of stabbing and strangling Danyetta Lentz, her daughter, Nicole, and her son, Scott, in their trailer home in 2007. Prosecutors theorized Koepp killed Lentz to ensure she didn’t reveal their affair and killed the children because they witnessed the slaying.

Koepp argued on appeal the trial judge should have allowed testimony showing Lentz had a late-night argument with an unknown man after she refused to have sex with him and her ex-boyfriend had been bothering her.

The 4th District Court of Appeals ruled Thursday nothing shows any violence resulted from the argument or Lentz’s ex-boyfriend threatened her.

Koepp’s attorney didn’t immediately return a message.