GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Lou Griffin will not be able to appeal a decision allowing evidence from another sexual assault during his upcoming trial for the 1986 murder of Lisa Holstead, an appeals court ruled.
The body of Holstead, 22, was found partially submerged in a swamp in an area now known as the Ken Euers Nature Area in August 1986. Griffin was charged in October 2020 after investigators linked Griffin to the scene by a DNA match.
In March, a judge ruled that prosecutors can use evidence from Griffin’s 1981 sexual assault conviction in Racine County at the trial for Holstead’s death.
The defense sought to appeal that ruling before the trial starts on Jan. 27. However, such appeals need the permission of the appeals court, and it turned Griffin down this week, court records show. No reason was cited in the court’s order, other than failing to meet the criteria for such an appeal.
According to a criminal complaint filed in October 2020, investigators linked Griffin to the murder earlier that year by matching his DNA to a sample found at the scene. Police tracked Griffin and got his DNA from beer cans and a cigarette he threw away.
Police say Griffin fit the profile of the killer. He lived in Green Bay at the time of the murder and was released from prison for a sexual assault crime a month prior to Holstead’s death.
The complaint says Griffin initially denied ever seeing Holstead. However, when presented with the DNA evidence, he said he must have had sex with her but did not kill her. He said he did not remember having sex with her.
He is being held on a $1 million cash bond.
