Motion hearing in Lily Peters murder case set for Monday

Yahoo

06-06-2025

CHIPPEWA FALLS — When will the trial for Carson Peters-Berger take place, and where? Will the case be moved to a different county in the state, or will a jury be brought to Chippewa County?
Those are the questions that will likely be resolved Monday at a motion hearing in the murder case. The hearing is expected to last the entire day.
Peters-Berger, who turned 17 in March, is accused of killing and then sexually assaulting his 10-year-old cousin, Lily Peters, in April 2022. Peters-Berger is charged in Chippewa County Court as an adult with first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of sexual assault. He was 14 at the time.
The motion hearing is set to begin at 8:15 a.m. Monday before Judge Steve Gibbs and could take the entire day. Because a trial is likely to go a week or more, and because all the witnesses and experts will need to clear their schedule, it is expected Gibbs will set a trial for some point in 2026.
In May, Gibbs issued an order that precludes all media from live-streaming the proceedings, in any way, of all pretrial evidentiary hearings. Media also will be barred from recording any live testimony, and 'all media may not directly quote the testimony of the witnesses,' but may 'summarize the content of the testimony.' An offender will face contempt proceedings.
A flurry of motions and letters have been filed with the court this week in advance of the hearing.
Defense attorney Michael Cohen filed a motion to suppress Peters-Berger's interview with police, contending that Peters-Berger's 'statements were taken in violation of his Miranda rights, and the second claim being that the statements were involuntary.' Cohen contends that Peters-Berger believed he was not free to leave the interview.
However, District Attorney Wade Newell countered that 'the only issue is whether the defendant was in custody,' and Newell contends that Peters-Berger was not formally arrested at the time of his questioning.
'No arrest-like restraints were placed on the defendant,' Newell wrote in a new court filing. 'He was not handcuffed; no weapons were drawn; the defendant was not frisked. He was simply shown the way to the interview room.'
Newell added: 'The defendant was told that he was not being forced to be there, and could leave whenever he needed to. In fact, to make it clear to him, the investigator point blank told him that he was not under arrest.'
Newell also stressed that all comments made by Peters-Berger to police were voluntary.
Gibbs granted a request to seal the transcript of the interview recording with police and a flash drive that contains video of the interview.
Cohen also has requested the trial be moved out of Chippewa County, citing news reports in the Leader-Telegram, WEAU and WQOW, among others.
'A jury in this matter will obviously be compromised, if kept within the county of Chippewa, of a significant portion of people that have friends, neighbors, co-workers, family members, etc., that have strong concerns and emotions and feelings and opinions about this case,' Cohen wrote. 'It is unfathomable and unrealistic to think that jurors can just set aside all of their own emotions, anxieties, concerns about being known within the public for being on the jury if the jury were to find in contrast to what public opinion thinks the verdict should be.'
Newell also filed a new letter, arguing against a motion to have the trial moved to a different county.
'While the defense is correct that the defendant need not prove actual prejudice exists, vague allegations of improper and prejudicial publicity and inconclusive evidence thereof do not make a showing that the community was so infected with passion and prejudice as to make it likely that a fair trial could not be had,' Newell wrote. 'All we have at this point is speculation as to what effects the pretrial publicity or memorial activity will have on any potential jurors. The state still contends the best way to determine if the community has been so infected with passion and prejudice, is with a well-written jury questionnaire that will determine individual juror biases or prejudices. This will ensure that an impartial jury is impaneled.'
Cohen countered with a new letter, saying he will be asking for a pretrial questionnaire, but that is 'separate and distinct' from any request for a change of venue.
As the Leader-Telegram reported earlier this year, only two cases — both murders — have been moved out of Chippewa County in the past 25 years.
Because of all the motions that will be discussed, Cohen has requested the hearing be split into two different days.
Cohen had previously argued that the case should not be in adult court because Peters-Berger is a juvenile. However, Judge Gibbs ruled on Jan. 22, 2024, that the case would remain in adult court, rejecting the defense's petition to have it moved to a juvenile proceeding. The Court of Appeals later agreed with Gibbs. Gibbs has since unsealed the name of the suspect.
Peters-Berger has been held in the Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Eau Claire on a $1 million cash bond since his arrest.
Lily Peters was killed on April 24, 2022, in Chippewa Falls. Her body was discovered the next morning. When interviewed by investigators, Peters-Berger told police he punched Lily in the stomach, struck her on the head three times with a heavy stick, then strangled her until she was dead. He then had sex with her body. He went home and put his dirty clothes in the laundry, but later returned to the scene, dragged her body a few feet, and covered her body with leaves.