The policeman told Jesse Dee Wise he wanted to go into the Leola house, just “to make sure there was no foul play,’’ involving the young man’s six missing family members.
Without a word, East Lampeter Township Police Officer Samuel Sanger testified this morning, Wise and a female friend got into a car parked in the driveway and left.
Sanger went inside the house at 81 E. Main St., on the afternoon of April 12, along with two friends of the Wise family, one of whom went down the steps to the basement.
Almost immediately, Sanger said, the young man came running back up the steps yelling, “They’re all dead! They’re all dead. All six of them!’’
Sanger said the young man, John Adams, ran outside yelling to the policeman, “he was saying I needed to go get Wise, who had just left.’’
Minutes later, police did stop Wise’s car on Horseshoe Road, near Conestoga Valley High School, and took him into custody, eventually charging him with the largest mass murder in Lancaster County history.
Today in Lancaster County Court, defense attorneys argued that police had no right to stop Wise’s car, and raised other legal issues about how detectives handled the 21-year-old man’s arrest.
The legal issues are before Lancaster County Judge David Ashworth who will decide the matters before Wise — who is charged with six counts of criminal homicide and one count of attempted homicide — goes to trial.
This morning, the first police officer called to the scene for the family, suspiciously missing for several days, described the gruesome discovery inside the Wise family home.
After Adams ran outside the house, Sanger said he, too, went down the basement steps.
“About half-way down I detected an odor of a deceased body,’’ Sanger said, then looked in front of him to see a large body, under a blanket, with bloody drag marks behind it.
As he looked around, Sanger said, “I saw multiple bodies on the basement floor covered with blankets.’’
Sanger ran outside, too, broadcasting a description of the car Wise was driving, telling police to stop him in reference to the multiple dead bodies he had just discovered.
“I wanted him stopped. He had just left the scene where there were multiple dead bodies,’’ Sanger said. “I didn’t want anyone else harmed or for him to get away.’’
“ ‘I can’t believe he killed his own family,’ ’’ Sanger said Adams told him, adding, “ ‘You have to go get him. I knew he knew something by the way he was acting.’ ’’
Police eventually identified the dead bodies as members of the defendant’s family, including Emily J. Wise, 64; Wanda R. Wise, 45; Agnes Arlene Wise, 43; Skyler Richard Wise, 19; Jessie James Wise, 17; and 5-year-old Chance Wise.
The victims were strangled, stabbed or beaten, officials said.
It was Adams who first called 911 at the request of Wise’s grandfather, Jesse Lee Wise Sr., 65, who was in New York on business and hadn’t been able to reach his wife or the other members of his family for several days, Sanger said.
When Sanger arrived at the scene around 2 p.m., he was met by Adams, who told him that he had been knocking on the doors and windows for some time before Wise answered the door.
The mailbox was full of mail, vehicles belonging to all the missing people were in the driveway, the inside door had been barricaded, Adams told the policeman, and the kitchen sink was full of dirty dishes, something Emily Wise never would have tolerated.
Sanger said when he talked to the young Wise, the suspect would not make eye contact and seemed nervous, but suggested his grandmother and others had gone to New York.
When Wise was stopped that afternoon, around 2:30 p.m., he was not given his Miranda rights, a legal explanation of his right to remain silent and have an attorney, police said.
Officer Kenneth Crouse said he forgot to read the Miranda warning as they held Wise and eventually took him into custody on an outstanding warrant for another charge.
Defense attorneys John A. Kenneff and Doug Conrad are arguing that because Wise was not given his rights, anything he said to police could not be used against him.
However, Assistant District Attorney Craig Stedman said that while Wise was questioned throughout the night, detectives read him his rights four different times.
The statements used before the first rights were given, Stedman noted, will not be used during the trial.
Police said they learned that the family was killed around April 9 and that Wise lived in the home and used his grandmother’s credit cards and money from the victims to go shopping and entertain his girlfriend.
Two days after the killings, police said Wise asked another teenage girl to go to New York with him, allegedly to kill his grandfather.
Testimony in the pretrial hearing was expected to continue throughout the day, with the judge’s ruling at a later date.
After Adams ran outside the house, Sanger said he, too, went down the basement steps.
“About half-way down I detected an odor of a deceased body,’’ Sanger said, then looked in front of him to see a large body, under a blanket, with bloody drag marks behind it.
As he looked around, Sanger said, “I saw multiple bodies on the basement floor covered with blankets.’’
Sanger ran outside, too, broadcasting a description of the car Wise was driving, telling police to stop him in reference to the multiple dead bodies he had just discovered.
“I wanted him stopped. He had just left the scene where there were multiple dead bodies,’’ Sanger said. “I didn’t want anyone else harmed or for him to get away.’’
“ ‘I can’t believe he killed his own family,’ ’’ Sanger said Adams told him, adding, “ ‘You have to go get him. I knew he knew something by the way he was acting.’ ’’
Police eventually identified the dead bodies as members of the defendant’s family, including Emily J. Wise, 64; Wanda R. Wise, 45; Agnes Arlene Wise, 43; Skyler Richard Wise, 19; Jessie James Wise, 17; and 5-year-old Chance Wise.
The victims were strangled, stabbed or beaten, officials said.
It was Adams who first called 911 at the request of Wise’s grandfather, Jesse Lee Wise Sr., 65, who was in New York on business and hadn’t been able to reach his wife or the other members of his family for several days, Sanger said.
When Sanger arrived at the scene around 2 p.m., he was met by Adams, who told him that he had been knocking on the doors and windows for some time before Wise answered the door.
The mailbox was full of mail, vehicles belonging to all the missing people were in the driveway, the inside door had been barricaded, Adams told the policeman, and the kitchen sink was full of dirty dishes, something Emily Wise never would have tolerated.
Sanger said when he talked to the young Wise, the suspect would not make eye contact and seemed nervous, but suggested his grandmother and others had gone to New York.
When Wise was stopped that afternoon, around 2:30 p.m., he was not given his Miranda rights, a legal explanation of his right to remain silent and have an attorney, police said.
Officer Kenneth Crouse said he forgot to read the Miranda warning as they held Wise and eventually took him into custody on an outstanding warrant for another charge.
Defense attorneys John A. Kenneff and Doug Conrad are arguing that because Wise was not given his rights, anything he said to police could not be used against him.
However, Assistant District Attorney Craig Stedman said that while Wise was questioned throughout the night, detectives read him his rights four different times.
The statements used before the first rights were given, Stedman noted, will not be used during the trial.
Police said they learned that the family was killed around April 9 and that Wise lived in the home and used his grandmother’s credit cards and money from the victims to go shopping and entertain his girlfriend.
Two days after the killings, police said Wise asked another teenage girl to go to New York with him, allegedly to kill his grandfather.
Testimony in the pretrial hearing was expected to continue throughout the day, with the judge’s ruling at a later date.