APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A woman charged in connection with a Kaukauna murder plans to argue she was a coerced victim of human trafficking, and therefore should be found not guilty for her role in the death, in what may be the first use of the defense in the area.
Dontae Payne and Tanya Stammer are charged with first-degree intentional homicide and armed robbery for the death of Brian Porsche at a home on W. Division Street on March 30, 2021.
No trial date has been set for Payne, who returns to court Feb. 3, while Stammer is scheduled to stand trial next July.
Stammer’s offering of what’s known as an “affirmative defense” appears to be the first of this type in the region since a Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in July. The court ruled that a 2008 state law that absolves trafficking victims of criminal liability for any offenses committed as a direct result of being trafficked extends to first-degree intentional homicide. However, but defendants have to offer evidence the crime — in this case, murder — was connected to being a victim of trafficking.
On Thursday, Stammer’s attorneys submitted copies of the law on the defense, including a possible jury instruction.
In a previous court filing, the defense said it “intends to offer evidence that she was victim of human trafficking, as defined in (state statute) leading up to the offense, that she was being directly trafficked on March 30, 2021, by the parties present in the vehicle, and that the events described in the allegations were only possible because of her role as a victim of human trafficking.”
Prosecutors are expected to file a reply brief on the issue by the end of the year.
Stammer’s attorneys also filed another motion Thursday, asking for her statements to police not to be allowed at trial.
