GRAND CHUTE, Delete. (WBAY) – A teenager wanted for first-degree deliberate manslaughter for Sunday’s Fox River Mall shooting is in custody.
Grand Chute police say Dezman Ellis, 17, was arrested in Des Moines, Iowa, without incident Thursday afternoon at approximately 3:30 a.m.
Grand Chute police say that while trying to track down Ellis’s whereabouts, they developed information that he was likely to leave the state. They enlisted the help of the US Marshals Service.
The U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force agreed to assist with the investigation on Monday. “Following a thorough 24-hour investigation,” police said, Ellis was taken into custody at a home in Des Moines, about 400 miles from Grand Chute.
Ellis is charged in Outagamie County Circuit Court with 1st degree willful murder and 1st degree reckless security. According to prosecutors, police believe Ellis shot and murdered 19-year-old Jovanni Frausto in the mall food court during an argument over a girl who previously dated Ellis. An autopsy said Frausto died of two gunshot wounds, including one to the chest. Another person who was shot was treated in a hospital and released.
Judge Carrie Schneider, judge on the Outagamie County Circuit Court, issued a warrant for Ellis’s arrest on Tuesday and added a $ 750,000 bail bond on Wednesday.
Police told Action 2 News that Ellis is in a secure facility in the custody of US Marshals. Our ABC sister station in Des Moines has confirmed he is still in Iowa. Although he is being charged as an adult in Wisconsin, the Polk County Police Department said he is being held in juvenile detention, according to the marshals’ service.
Grand Chute Police issued a statement that read, “We also want to express our sincere thanks to the public for the many tips we received during this investigation.”
Police tell us that the Great Lakes Regional Task Force includes the offices of the US Marshals in Green Bay; Milwaukee; Madison; Chicago; and Hammond, Indiana; along with the Southern Iowa Fugitive Task Force. Members of the Appleton Police / Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office for Special Investigations are delegated as officers of the US Marshals Task Force.
Copyright 2021 WBAY. All rights reserved.