Today, Zachary Hohn appeared in the Waupaca County Court to petition to have his case transferred to juvenile court.
Last April, 16-year-old Zachary Hohn and 24-year-old Adam Ozuna were charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the death of Matthew Pagel. Both men were charged as adults.
Authorities say the men beat Pagel to death and dumped his body in a roadside ditch near Clintonville. The victim's mother reported her son missing just hours before police called to tell her he was found dead.
According to the criminal complaint, this all started over drugs.
Pagel was hoping to receive Adderall from Hohn and Ozuna, and was picked up from the Clintonville Motel around one in the morning Monday.
But the two men had other plans, says the complaint, and Hohn is quoted as saying they were going to rob him, but Pagel fought back.
Once the fight broke out, Hohn and Ozuna started throwing punches, hitting Pagel repeatedly until they killed him. The complaint says the two then dumped his body on Airport Road.
Later Hohn and Ozuna decided to drag Pagel into a ditch just off the road.
Then they came back one more time to steal his phone, which had text messages on it from them.
"There's nothing saying that they disliked each other," says Waupaca Co. Sheriff Brad Hardel, describing the beating as brutal, "they knew of each other so it was like, that day, they decided that's what they were going to do."
Police say they were tipped off to the two men's involvement from an anonymous caller who had heard Hohn bragging about killing Pagel.
At 9:00 a.m. this morning, the Waupaca County Court denied Hohn's request to be tried in juvenile court.
An arraignment has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on October 25.
If convicted both men could face life in prison.
