Paul Dehne, 26, and Christopher Angus, 25, worked together at Concentrix Ltd., an arms and ammunition components manufacturer located in Racine, Wisconsin. The two friends, who carpooled to their jobs together, argued a bit about money on their way into work on Thursday, April 17, 2008. Although they had continued to argue throughout much of the day, it appeared that they had patched up any differences they'd had by the time they clocked out at 3 p.m. that day because they had gone into a large room at the plant and began drinking together. At some point, however, according to a criminal complaint that was filed against Dehne on Monday, April 28, 2008, charging him with first-degree reckless homicide in connection with Angus's death, the two began arguing again a short time later.
Angus, a climbing aficionado who enjoyed climbing walls, among other things, had fashioned a do-it-yourself harness of sorts that he had attached around the area of his waist and groin. He subsequently connected the device to an overhead beam via a dangling loop. He had utilized his self-rigged harness to climb a wall inside the building, apparently to show Dehne that he could. According to the account that Dehne provided to the police, Angus, after climbing the wall, had ended up at the top of a stairway near the ceiling when the two men began arguing again, apparently over $650 that Dehne owed Angus for damage that he had caused to Angus's car. At some point, Dehne pushed him and Angus fell off the stairway with the harness attached, which had become twisted around Angus's throat on the way down. His body had come to a halt with his feet only inches above the floor.
At first it was believed that Angus's death had been an accident. However, the homicide detectives investigating the case were suspicious of Dehne's story and interviewed him a second time. It was during the subsequent interview that Dehne told the police that he had been with Angus when he died, and had watched him thrashing and kicking about as he attempted to get out of the harness, to no avail. Dehne said that he left the room at some point and had not helped his friend and coworker even though he knew that Angus might be dying.
The detectives later learned that Dehne had changed his time card so that it would look like he had worked until 4:15 p.m. He also made several calls to Angus's cell phone so that it would appear that he had been attempting to locate Angus, according to the detectives.
Why hadn't he helped Angus? The cops wanted to know. According to the complaint, Dehne allegedly said that he had been having a bad time, apparently over their differences regarding the money, and that he had wanted Angus "to feel the pain" that he had been feeling.
If convicted of the charges, Dehne could get up to 60 years in prison.
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