Jurors find Patrick Fowler guilty of fatally stabbing woman, her daughter
04/21/2017 2:36 pm PDT
via WITI
MILWAUKEE -- (WITI) -- Jurors found 33-year-old Patrick Fowler guilty of two counts of first degree intentional homicide in the deaths of a young mother and her child. That verdict was read in court shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Friday, April 21st.
“We the jury find the defendent Patrick Fowler guilty of first degree intentional homicide of Jessica Ellenberger. We the jury find the defendent Patrick Fowler guilty of first degree intentional homicide of Madyson Marshel,” the judge said as he read the verdict aloud in court.
“Now our angels got what they deserved. He can rot in hell,” said Annette Ellenberger, the victims' mother and grandmother.
That verdict came in moments after the jury asked to see a transcript and video of Fowler confessing to killing Ellenberger and Marshel. Their bodies were discovered inside their home near 68th and Stevenson in Milwaukee on March 19th, 2016.
Fowler told the jury on Thursday, April 20th that he was in the bathroom when it all happened. He said he heard Ellenberger scream, and then four-year-old Madyson cried out.
“I opened the door. I seen somebody rushing at me. I threw my hand up and my hand was cut. I slammed the bathroom door and stayed in there,” Fowler told the court.
Fowler said his own fear kept him from helping. When he came out of the bathroom, the mother and daughter were dead from stab wounds.
“I kneeled down by Jessica. I held her and prayed for them,” Fowler testified.
With blood on his clothes, Fowler said he eventually left town because he heard on the news that the house was set on fire — and he thought someone had come back for him.
“I chose to save myself. I got three daughters myself. What if it was them (cries),” Fowler testified.
Prosecutors say Fowler admitted he and Ellenberger were arguing on March 19th, and Fowler “felt as if he was being disrespected.”
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