Background: Walmart in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin (Google Maps) Inset: Dylan Michael Lenz (Dodge County Sheriff’s Office)
A man who has been accused of stabbing and running over a teenage girl he connected with online has entered a no contest plea to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin.
Dylan Michael Lenz, aged 19, agreed to a deal with prosecutors on Monday, where he pleaded no contest to the charge of attempted homicide with a dangerous weapon. This no contest plea signifies a recognition that the prosecutors probably possess sufficient evidence for a conviction, without him admitting guilt outright.
As stated in court records, charges including aggravated battery, first-degree reckless injury, hit and run resulting in great bodily harm, and misdemeanor battery were dismissed but will still be considered in the proceedings.
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Lenz was 17 years old on Oct. 15, 2022, when he is said to have met a 17-year-old girl on Snapchat, picked her up, and took her to a Walmart in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. According to investigators, he had a calculated plan for what he planned to do.
“While in the store, I was like, ‘This is the last day she was going to be alive. This is the last night of her life,”” Lenz told a Beaver Dam Police Department detective after being arrested, per WMTV. “I was out of control. I wasn’t thinking. My body just took over.”
Investigators said he admitted to stabbing the unnamed girl with a box cutter, letting her out of his car, and then driving over her multiple times.
When he was asked why he committed the crimes, Lenz reportedly told investigators he was having “really bad thoughts.”
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When police arrived at the scene, they reported seeing the victim groaning in pain and breathing heavily, WKOW reported at the time. Lenz was detained later that night.
Lenz’s sentencing hearing will take place on Sept. 12. He is being held in the Dodge County Jail.
