Editor's note: Below is the second of a two-part series profiling Jeremy and Armin Wand III. The first part was published in the Monday, Oct. 22 edition of The Monroe Times.
ARGYLE - On Valentine's Day 2003, the parents of a 17-year-old girl took out a restraining order against her 23-year-old boyfriend. He was continuing to have sex with the girl, and her parents wanted the relationship to end.
The Lafayette County Circuit Court granted the request a week later and ordered the couple have no contact. The restraining order stayed in effect until her 18th birthday almost seven months later, on Sept. 5.
It didn't keep the couple apart for long.
That 23-year-old is Armin Wand III, now 32, and the girl is now his wife Sharon Wand, 27. He is charged with trying to kill her and their four children by setting a house fire Sept. 7 in Argyle with his younger brother, Jeremy Wand, to collect on life insurance. The couple's three boys died in the fire, and the Wand brothers have a preliminary hearing Nov. 13 on multiple homicide charges against them. Sharon Wand, who lost the baby she was carrying at the time of the fire, remains in critical condition at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.
Armin III has a troubled past, the way his family tells it. Court records back that up. Starting when he was a teenager, he mouthed off, smoked pot, got in fights and wrote bad checks to businesses around the area - to Farm & Fleet, Papa Don's Horseshoe Saloon, Leisure Lanes, Piggly Wiggly and others.
Eighteen-year-old Jeremy, a senior in high school, barely has a record. He got in trouble for bringing a cellphone to school one time, his parents say, and he's charged with a misdemeanor for trying to break into an abandoned building in Argyle with some friends.
But fighting, writing bad checks and trespassing are relatively petty offenses that don't lead in a clear line to homicide.
As the cases get nationwide media coverage, and commenters on news articles condemn the brothers and call for their execution, the questions linger: how could this happen and who are Armin III and Jeremy?
The court case against the brothers is just beginning and reveals little so far. Investigators say they admitted to the arson. The motive for Armin III appears to be a "fresh start" from a crumbling marriage filled with constant arguments about money. For Jeremy, a "hesitant" participant in the arson plot, the motive was the promise of a $300 cut of the insurance settlement.
Recent developments suggest Jeremy may be incompetent to stand trial, and his brother may also have cognitive issues. The judge ordered this week that Jeremy be evaluated for competency, at the request of his lawyer.
A document filed in Armin III's case could also suggest cognitive impairment. In a report from the scene of the fire, a special agent with the state's Arson Bureau wrote that consent "was provided by the adult male (occupant) to conduct the fire scene examination. However, it was reported that the adult male may have cognitive disabilities that may impair his ability to provide consent with a full understanding of his constitutional rights."
The document is "interesting," says Armin III's attorney, Guy Taylor. But, right now, "that's all it is." Unless the state allows Taylor the access to investigate the claim further, he has no way of confirming that Armin III is the subject or of finding out who reported the possible cognitive disabilities and the reliability of that assessment.
Armin III and Jeremy "were like two peas in a pod" growing up, remembers their grandmother, Wilma Wand. They were both happy boys, the family agrees.
As the brothers grew older, they started showing differences. Armin III was more athletic in high school, more outdoorsy and has a temper. He inherited unique characteristics from both parents and has eyesight issues that have caused him to be essentially blind in one eye and unable to get a driver's license.
"He has one eye that changes colors depending on what the weather is," says his father, Armin Wand, Jr. When it's nice out, the eye is green; when it rains, it darkens to brown. "He was born that way. It runs in my wife's family."
From his dad's side, he inherited a stutter.
Armin III fell in with the wrong bunch of kids as a teenager, as his dad sees it. After he married Sharon in front of a court officiant in Monroe, "he tried to straighten himself out." He got to know Sharon when she was only a sophomore in high school. "They started going together. He loved her, so I wasn't going to say anything. Love is blind."
That hands-off approach is indicative of Armin Jr.'s general parenting philosophy. Once his kids are grown up, he tries not to interfere. The one piece of advice he gives again and again is to stay away from drugs.
"I told 'em growing up, alcohol is drug enough," he says. "If they turn out wrong, that's their fault."
The Wand family speaks of the local cops on a first-name basis and in a matter-of-fact, congenial tone. There's Hayley, the chief of police in Argyle. Her deputy is Kyle.
The family has a history of tangles with the law, and one incident in particular, from 2001, gives an outsider's glimpse of Jeremy as a young boy.
Officers stopped by the Wand home to investigate a report that Armin Jr. hit his son Steven, then 14, on the back of the head with a coffee cup, leaving a deep gash.
The officers found 6-year-old Jeremy home alone and stayed with him while they waited for his parents to turn up. One officer noted in his report that Jeremy "was very verbal and easy to understand" and that he chatted freely about what he was doing.
"He had made himself a sandwich. He used the salami from the refrigerator and bread and made it all on his own," the officer wrote.
Jeremy also told the officers how his father hit Steven and pointed to the coffee mug he used in the cupboard. Armin Jr. pleaded guilty to the charge and has since fulfilled his sentence. A charge that he broke bond by drinking alcohol, filed 11 days later, was dismissed.
Compared to his oldest brother, Jeremy is quieter and more of an indoor-type. Growing up, "he was a good drawer," says his mother, Barbara, and he dreamed of one day becoming an architect.
At school he got picked on and was called "Shortie." One day, a cop brought him home after finding him hiding from other kids behind a tree. Jeremy sought out his dad for advice. Armin Jr. remembers Jeremy waking him up at night, wanting to talk over life and get his problems off his chest.
A Facebook photo Jeremy posted three days before the fire shows him standing arm-in-arm in the shade of a tree in a sunny yard with Sharon Wand and a girl his own age in a lime green gown. A slight-built teen, Jeremy looks shy and dapper in a snow white suit with a white shirt. He's wearing a sky-blue tie and a matching handkerchief in his breast pocket.
A neighbor in Argyle remembers him as "bashful" and said he made it a point to always say hello to Jeremy and make eye contact. He had hoped the gesture, in a small way, would help build Jeremy's confidence.
The Wand family agrees both brothers cared about the children they're accused of plotting to kill. Uncle Jeremy was a role model to the kids, and 2-year-old Jessica, the only child to survive the fire, was "Daddy's little girl."
Jeremy "loved playing with his nephews and nieces," says his older sister, Tammy. He spent his free time hanging out at Armin III and Sharon's home. Sharon posted many photos on Facebook of him posing with her kids, arms wrapped around them, everybody smiling.
The state's report on the Sept. 7 fire stands in gruesome and heartbreaking contrast to these photos and memories.
Armin III was seen trying to put Jessica back in the burning house through a window after her mother saved her.
Jeremy told investigators he shut and locked the bedroom door on two of the boys because he wanted to ensure the flames didn't get near them, apparently an effort to protect them.
The bodies of Allen, 7, and Jeffery, 5, were later found together face down on the floor of the bedroom with the door closed and locked from the outside.
In their obituaries, Allen was the "consummate big brother with a great sense of humor." He enjoyed wrestling, t-ball, riding his bike, climbing trees and watching cartoons with his little brothers.
Jeffery was the quiet one of the three boys. He enjoyed playing with his cars and trucks while sitting "W-style" on the floor.
He adored his big brother.
ARGYLE - On Valentine's Day 2003, the parents of a 17-year-old girl took out a restraining order against her 23-year-old boyfriend. He was continuing to have sex with the girl, and her parents wanted the relationship to end.
The Lafayette County Circuit Court granted the request a week later and ordered the couple have no contact. The restraining order stayed in effect until her 18th birthday almost seven months later, on Sept. 5.
It didn't keep the couple apart for long.
That 23-year-old is Armin Wand III, now 32, and the girl is now his wife Sharon Wand, 27. He is charged with trying to kill her and their four children by setting a house fire Sept. 7 in Argyle with his younger brother, Jeremy Wand, to collect on life insurance. The couple's three boys died in the fire, and the Wand brothers have a preliminary hearing Nov. 13 on multiple homicide charges against them. Sharon Wand, who lost the baby she was carrying at the time of the fire, remains in critical condition at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison.
Armin III has a troubled past, the way his family tells it. Court records back that up. Starting when he was a teenager, he mouthed off, smoked pot, got in fights and wrote bad checks to businesses around the area - to Farm & Fleet, Papa Don's Horseshoe Saloon, Leisure Lanes, Piggly Wiggly and others.
Eighteen-year-old Jeremy, a senior in high school, barely has a record. He got in trouble for bringing a cellphone to school one time, his parents say, and he's charged with a misdemeanor for trying to break into an abandoned building in Argyle with some friends.
But fighting, writing bad checks and trespassing are relatively petty offenses that don't lead in a clear line to homicide.
As the cases get nationwide media coverage, and commenters on news articles condemn the brothers and call for their execution, the questions linger: how could this happen and who are Armin III and Jeremy?
The court case against the brothers is just beginning and reveals little so far. Investigators say they admitted to the arson. The motive for Armin III appears to be a "fresh start" from a crumbling marriage filled with constant arguments about money. For Jeremy, a "hesitant" participant in the arson plot, the motive was the promise of a $300 cut of the insurance settlement.
Recent developments suggest Jeremy may be incompetent to stand trial, and his brother may also have cognitive issues. The judge ordered this week that Jeremy be evaluated for competency, at the request of his lawyer.
A document filed in Armin III's case could also suggest cognitive impairment. In a report from the scene of the fire, a special agent with the state's Arson Bureau wrote that consent "was provided by the adult male (occupant) to conduct the fire scene examination. However, it was reported that the adult male may have cognitive disabilities that may impair his ability to provide consent with a full understanding of his constitutional rights."
The document is "interesting," says Armin III's attorney, Guy Taylor. But, right now, "that's all it is." Unless the state allows Taylor the access to investigate the claim further, he has no way of confirming that Armin III is the subject or of finding out who reported the possible cognitive disabilities and the reliability of that assessment.
Armin III and Jeremy "were like two peas in a pod" growing up, remembers their grandmother, Wilma Wand. They were both happy boys, the family agrees.
As the brothers grew older, they started showing differences. Armin III was more athletic in high school, more outdoorsy and has a temper. He inherited unique characteristics from both parents and has eyesight issues that have caused him to be essentially blind in one eye and unable to get a driver's license.
"He has one eye that changes colors depending on what the weather is," says his father, Armin Wand, Jr. When it's nice out, the eye is green; when it rains, it darkens to brown. "He was born that way. It runs in my wife's family."
From his dad's side, he inherited a stutter.
Armin III fell in with the wrong bunch of kids as a teenager, as his dad sees it. After he married Sharon in front of a court officiant in Monroe, "he tried to straighten himself out." He got to know Sharon when she was only a sophomore in high school. "They started going together. He loved her, so I wasn't going to say anything. Love is blind."
That hands-off approach is indicative of Armin Jr.'s general parenting philosophy. Once his kids are grown up, he tries not to interfere. The one piece of advice he gives again and again is to stay away from drugs.
"I told 'em growing up, alcohol is drug enough," he says. "If they turn out wrong, that's their fault."
The Wand family speaks of the local cops on a first-name basis and in a matter-of-fact, congenial tone. There's Hayley, the chief of police in Argyle. Her deputy is Kyle.
The family has a history of tangles with the law, and one incident in particular, from 2001, gives an outsider's glimpse of Jeremy as a young boy.
Officers stopped by the Wand home to investigate a report that Armin Jr. hit his son Steven, then 14, on the back of the head with a coffee cup, leaving a deep gash.
The officers found 6-year-old Jeremy home alone and stayed with him while they waited for his parents to turn up. One officer noted in his report that Jeremy "was very verbal and easy to understand" and that he chatted freely about what he was doing.
"He had made himself a sandwich. He used the salami from the refrigerator and bread and made it all on his own," the officer wrote.
Jeremy also told the officers how his father hit Steven and pointed to the coffee mug he used in the cupboard. Armin Jr. pleaded guilty to the charge and has since fulfilled his sentence. A charge that he broke bond by drinking alcohol, filed 11 days later, was dismissed.
Compared to his oldest brother, Jeremy is quieter and more of an indoor-type. Growing up, "he was a good drawer," says his mother, Barbara, and he dreamed of one day becoming an architect.
At school he got picked on and was called "Shortie." One day, a cop brought him home after finding him hiding from other kids behind a tree. Jeremy sought out his dad for advice. Armin Jr. remembers Jeremy waking him up at night, wanting to talk over life and get his problems off his chest.
A Facebook photo Jeremy posted three days before the fire shows him standing arm-in-arm in the shade of a tree in a sunny yard with Sharon Wand and a girl his own age in a lime green gown. A slight-built teen, Jeremy looks shy and dapper in a snow white suit with a white shirt. He's wearing a sky-blue tie and a matching handkerchief in his breast pocket.
A neighbor in Argyle remembers him as "bashful" and said he made it a point to always say hello to Jeremy and make eye contact. He had hoped the gesture, in a small way, would help build Jeremy's confidence.
The Wand family agrees both brothers cared about the children they're accused of plotting to kill. Uncle Jeremy was a role model to the kids, and 2-year-old Jessica, the only child to survive the fire, was "Daddy's little girl."
Jeremy "loved playing with his nephews and nieces," says his older sister, Tammy. He spent his free time hanging out at Armin III and Sharon's home. Sharon posted many photos on Facebook of him posing with her kids, arms wrapped around them, everybody smiling.
The state's report on the Sept. 7 fire stands in gruesome and heartbreaking contrast to these photos and memories.
Armin III was seen trying to put Jessica back in the burning house through a window after her mother saved her.
Jeremy told investigators he shut and locked the bedroom door on two of the boys because he wanted to ensure the flames didn't get near them, apparently an effort to protect them.
The bodies of Allen, 7, and Jeffery, 5, were later found together face down on the floor of the bedroom with the door closed and locked from the outside.
In their obituaries, Allen was the "consummate big brother with a great sense of humor." He enjoyed wrestling, t-ball, riding his bike, climbing trees and watching cartoons with his little brothers.
Jeffery was the quiet one of the three boys. He enjoyed playing with his cars and trucks while sitting "W-style" on the floor.
He adored his big brother.