3-1-18 brantner receives maximum sentence

An over the road trucker from Kenosha convicted in the 1990 death of a Sturdevant teenager in Fond du lac County has received the maximum sentence.   At a hearing today Fond du Lac County Circuit judge Robert Wirtz sentenced Dennis Brantner to the maximum ten years in prison. As part of a plea agreement  Brantner  was convicted last month of second degree reckless homicide in the murder of Berit Beck avoiding a first degree murder trial.     District attorney Eric Toney says because of statute of limitations there was a possibility that Brantner would not have received any prison time if a jury convicted him of a lesser charge.  The 18 year old Beck was driving from her home in Sturdevant to Appleton when she disappeared after stopping at the Fond du Lac Forest Mall.  Her body was found about a month later in a roadside ditch near Waupun.  Sheriff Mick Fink believes Brantner intentionally killed Beck, but says it was also important to have closure for the family.  Brantner was earlier convicted of numerous drug charges and felony bail jumping. Toney says Brantner is 64 years old and with time already spent in custody, with the maximum sentence  imposed, he would be 75 years old when he is released from prison.