Racine man sentenced to 10 years in prison for 1986 cold-case homicide of Lisa Holstead
Kelli Arseneau
GREEN BAY – More than 36 years after 22-year-old Lisa Holstead's death, a Racine man was sentenced Monday morning to 10 years in prison.
Lou Griffin, 67, was sentenced Monday for homicide by reckless conduct, with 10 years the maximum penalty available under laws in 1986, when the crime was committed.
In August 1986, Holstead's body was found in a marshy area of the northwest side of Green Bay, near Ken Euers Nature Park. She had been strangled with a piece of her own clothing. For more than three decades, the case remained unsolved and became Green Bay's oldest cold-case homicide.
Six of Holstead's family members — two sisters, her brother, her niece, her son and her granddaughter — all made witness statements during the sentencing hearing. They described the negative impact the long cold case had on their family, and expressed their displeasure with the maximum available sentence.
Holstead's family members addressed Griffin directly. Some took the stand wearing shirts displaying an photo of Holstead.
"The pain it caused our family cannot even be described to you. Many tears. I have thought about Lisa all these years, every day," Steven Holstead said. "It's been 13,377 days since you murdered her."
Holstead's family also shared memories and described Lisa Holstead's characteristics —including that she was kind, outgoing, trusting, creative, and a great mother to her son, Jeremy Holstead, who was 5 years old when she was killed.
Steven Holstead said the family had limited photos and no videos of his sister. While presenting his statement at the witness stand, he showed a framed picture of Lisa Holstead and played an audio recording of her singing as a child.
In 2020, Griffin was connected to the cold case through forensic genetic genealogy. Police collected Griffin's DNA from beer cans and a cigarette butt and found it matched with a 1998 DNA analysis of semen found at the scene.
According to a criminal complaint, Griffin told investigators he had been high on cocaine and was drinking alcohol on the night of Aug. 12, 1986. He said he may have had sex with Holstead, but denied killing her.
Griffin has a history of violence against women, including strangulation. He was living in Green Bay for a month before Holstead's death, after he was released on parole from the Green Bay Correctional Institution for second-degree sexual assault of a child.
Since 2020, the case has been "very litigous," Brown County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Hinkfuss said. Griffin previously faced more serious homicide charges, but entered a plea deal of no contest to the reduced charge in January.
When delivering Griffin's sentence, Hinkfuss said Holstead's homicide was "a brutal, despicable and heinous act," but the sentence he delivers is bound by the laws as they were at the time of the crime.
Brown County District Attorney David Lasee requested the maximum possible sentence, while acknowledging that it was "woefully inadequate."
"The serious of this crime cannot be overstated," Brown County District Attorney David Lasee said. "He failed to take accountability and avoided justice for 34 years. The impact that has had on the family is significant."
Peter Heyne, one of Griffin's three attorneys, requested a lesser sentence, saying Griffin had already been sitting in jail for two years and was in poor health.
When delivering his sentence, Hinkfuss said Griffin has continued to victimize Holstead's family by offering no explanation and failing to take responsibility. He explained the limitations of the sentence he was able to give, since Wisconsin's current sentencing system, known as "truth in sentencing," wasn't enacted until 2000. Under current Wisconsin law, homicide by reckless conduct, a Class C felony, carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.
Griffin will be eligible for parole after serving one quarter of his sentence, and must be released after serving two-thirds of his sentence, Lasee said. He will also need to pay restitution — the amount will be determined at a later date.
RELATED:Forensic genealogy led to Racine man's arrest in 1986 homicide of Lisa Holstead of Green Bay
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.