WAUPACA COUNTY, Wis. (WFRV) – Over 30 years later, a man accused of a brutal double murder in the town of Royalton gets his day in court.
After a three-day jury selection process, opening statements began Thursday afternoon in a Waupaca County courtroom for the trial of Tony Haase. He’s facing two intentional homicide charges for the 1992 stabbings of Tanna Togstad and Timothy Mumbrue in her town of Royalton home.
Prosecutors say that DNA evidence found on Togstad’s body and bloody hand prints found in her home at the crime scene link Haase to the murders.
In opening statements, prosecutors said throughout the trial, jurors will hear from law enforcement officials and forensic analysts who will show them how they meticulously preserved evidence from over 30 years ago.
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“The Wisconsin state crime lab and the Waupaca County investigators did something remarkable,” said prosecutor Amy Marie Michiko Ohtani. ”They preserved the evidence at the crime scene, and they took great care to do that. You will see the evidence has stood the test of time.”
Prosecutors said that during a police interview in 2022, Haase consented to a cheek swab test and that the DNA matched the DNA found at the crime scene.
In their opening statement, Haase’s defense team argued that DNA evidence significantly degrades over three decades, casting doubt on investigators’ ability to connect their client to the crime scene.
They said investigators were desperate to solve this case and were willing to cut corners to identify a suspect.
“They’re trying to solve cases and they’re going to push a square peg through a round hole no matter what they have to do,” said defense attorney John Birdsall. “You’re going to see the utterly botched crime scene collection of DNA, fingerprints, and blood.
Birdsall said that investigators ignored evidence that Haase’s uncle was actually the one who murdered Togstad and Mumbrue. His uncle died by suicide in 1995.
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“(During the trial, you will learn about the uncle’s ) psychotic mind,” Birdsall said. “A man who spends all of his off hours sharpening his knives to perfection. You’re going to hear about him killing dogs, including his daughter’s dog.”
After opening statements, the state called its first few witnesses, who were friends and family members of the victims. The trial is expected to last six weeks.
According to a criminal complaint, Haase told police that his dad died in a snowmobile crash that Togstad’s father was also involved in. He said on the day of the murders, he had been drinking and thought back to his father’s death.
He told police he then went to Togstad’s home and confronted her and Mumbrue. He said that because he was drunk, his memories of what happened next are fuzzy. According to the criminal complaint, he did tell police he was worried that he had been part of the crime when he heard what had happened.
Birdsall reminded jurors that if there’s any reasonable doubt that Haase did this, they must return a not guilty verdict.
“What the state wants is just to give you the cover of the book,” he said. “The cover the state is trying to sell you is very different from the pages inside.”
“The evidence in this case ties one person and only one person, and that is the defendant Tony Haase,” the state said.
