Accused set for April final pre-trial
By Jason Arndt
Editor
Casey L. Myers and Austin R. Johnson, accused of delivering a fatal drug combination to a Twin Lakes man in June, each pleaded not guilty to the charges at a Feb. 6 arraignment before Kenosha County Circuit Court judge David Bastianelli.
Myers, 32, of St. Charles, Ill., and Johnson, 29, Chicago, are scheduled to appear at an April 13 judicial pre-trial conference.
The two also had their $100,000 cash bonds extended, which was imposed at their initial appearance last November by Court Commissioner David R. Berman, who bound them over for trial a month later after he found probable cause a felony was committed.
The two who are reportedly married were the subject of a manhunt since Kenosha County prosecutors issued formal charges related to the June 12 death of Austin Lange, 22, of Twin Lakes, on Sept. 8.
According to the complaint, which indicates both face first-degree reckless homicide by delivery of drug charges, Myers was contacted by Lange about a drug transaction on June 11.
The next day, however, Lange was found dead in his apartment at 1717 Wilmot Road by a woman who later told authorities Myers and Johnson often sold heroin to Lange, the complaint contends.
Lange, according to the criminal complaint, died of acute mixed drug intoxication. The report “noted (that) fentanyl, acetylfentanyl, cocaine and MDMA” were in his system. MDMA is otherwise known as ecstasy.
Since then, Myers was indicted in two Illinois counties, including McHenry, where she faces charges in the March overdose death of Jennifer Farrell, of Richmond, Ill.
Myers’ alleged accomplice, Joseph A. Williams, 29, of Genoa City pleaded not guilty in that Illinois case in McHenry County and starts his jury trial this week.
Myers, who was arrested in Effingham County on an unrelated charge in July, told investigators from both Twin Lakes and Richmond she has 30 to 40 customers in Walworth and Kenosha counties, the complaint states.
After she was released on bond Aug. 7, McHenry and Effingham county court officials indicted her on charges related to her alleged crimes, according to criminal complaints from both counties.
Myers, on Nov. 2, became one of McHenry County’s 10 Most Wanted, according to the Sheriff’s website, which eventually noted she was captured.
The Hawkeye, a news outlet based in Burlington, Iowa, reports the two were found by U.S. Marshals and Burlington, Iowa, police on two separate dates.
According to the Hawkeye, Burlington police arrested Johnson in the 200 block of Summer Street on Nov. 6.
Later, the news outlet reported Myers, who told police she was homeless, was arrested after authorities conducted a traffic stop on Nov. 17.
Myers indictment in Effingham County is connected to an alleged counterfeit scheme, according to the criminal complaint, which states she tried to pass a fake $100 bill at a Sally Beauty Supply store in July.
In addition to a charge of forgery, Myers also faces a felony count of cocaine possession, the indictment shows.
Lange’s death, meanwhile, was one of five reported fatal overdoses in the Village of Twin Lakes last year.
In total, 10 people have been charged in relation to each of the five deaths.