‘It could have been prevented’: Police urged to arrest suspect 12 hours before woman’s murder

NEW BADEN, Ill. (First Alert 4) - In the hours before a Metro East woman’s murder, documents obtained by First Alert 4 reveal law enforcement’s knowledge of her suspected killer’s earlier violence, though police did little to get him off the streets.

The man facing charges in Alexis Maki’s murder was accused of a violent beating 12 hours before he itted to shooting and killing her.

Maki, 24, was 911 call obtained by First Alert 4:

“I f**ked up,” Metzger said in the call. “I did something so bad. I shot my girlfriend. I need to be arrested, please?”

The now-26-year-old made the panicked call around 4:20 p.m. and turned himself in to New Baden Police. It had been about one month since the pair had broken up, according to the family.

“I don’t think any of us really knew who he was. I really don’t,” Lisa Brock, Maki’s mother, said.

It wasn’t until after the two-year relationship between Metzger and Maki ended that the family realized what Metzger might be capable of.

“He was very jealous of her not spending all of her time with him,” Brock said. “He always thought something was going on with them when it wasn’t. He was just making her life miserable.”

On the day of Maki’s death, Metzger asked her to come over to the New Baden apartment the two shared. Though Maki’s name was on the lease, she had recently started staying at her mother’s house to get away from her ex-boyfriend, the family said. When Maki brought the dog the couple had adopted together to her mom’s house, Metzger convinced Alexis to bring the pup over, so he could see her one last time. Metzger had somewhere to be later that night and was packing his belongings.

“I said, ‘I don’t feel good about this,’ and she said, ‘Neither do I,’” Brock said. “So, I said, ‘Don’t go.’”

“I asked if he had a gun, and she kept saying, ‘He’s not going to hurt me,’ and I said, ‘You don’t know that.’”

“‘You didn’t think he would do what he did last night, but he did,’” Brock said.

12 HOURS EARLIER

The same day, officers with the Lebanon Police Department (LPD) responded to a reported attack around 4:20 a.m. at Grit and Tonic in Lebanon, Illinois, about 12 minutes from Maki’s New Baden apartment.

Giovanni Venuti, Maki and a coworker had just clocked out after a long shift working at the bar. Maki and Venuti had grown close in the months before her death. The three were talking in the parking lot when Metzger showed up, according to an incident report.

“I recognized his truck,” Venuti said. “He had pulled up before.”

“[Metzger] got out of his truck, walked up to the enger side window of Alexis’ car where I was at and punched me four or five times,” Venuti said.

Maki’s and Venuti’s coworker witnessed the alleged beating and called 911.

Pictures taken immediately following the incident show blood dripping from Venuti’s face, on his shirt, in Alexis’ car and on her dress. Medical records also detail how Venuti was left with at least one chipped tooth.

While Lebanon Police interviewed each of the three witnesses for about 30 minutes total, the incident report states this concluded the extent of their efforts to track down Metzger despite having his phone number, home address, license plate number and evidence of a victim left disfigured.

“I made it very clear I wanted to press charges,” Venuti said. “We wanted him in jail. The last thing I was the officer telling me he was off at 6 a.m.”

Police would not continue their investigation until about four hours later, at 8:34 a.m., when Venuti’s father showed up at the Lebanon Police Department, wondering why Metzger was not behind bars.

“I was frustrated that he was still out there,” Guy Venuti said. “So, I sent [police] a picture of his vehicle, his work schedule, his address at the time and his phone number, yet nothing happened as a result of that.”

This is the same information police had hours earlier.

It was only after Venuti’s father showed up that police called Metzger and left a voicemail, according to the incident report. Metzger called back about an hour later and scheduled a time to come in to LPD for a recorded interview. They set the meeting for 6 p.m., though Metzger never showed up.

“They treated it like it was a job application,” Venuti said.

“To extend that kind of courtesy, like, ‘You come to us when it’s convenient for you,’” Elizabeth Kaveny said, “I don’t understand.”

Kaveny is an attorney and managing partner at Kaveny + Kroll in Chicago. While she doesn’t represent Alexis’ family, she has worked on police misconduct cases before and said Maki’s family should be furious.

“I would be outraged,” Kaveny said. “I think that there’s a difference between a person of interest, a suspect and a suspect with probable cause for arrest. [Police] treated Emmet like a person of interest.”

Kaveny also said the extent of the damage done to Venuti would raise potential charges to a felony, making Metzger a suspected felon that police let roam the streets.

The incident report also details Maki had told police she wasn’t scared of Metzger before, but now she was.

“Was there disregard or indifference for the safety of others? Yeah,” Kaveny said.

“Trust me, I’ve gone through all of the possibilities of what they could’ve done and what they didn’t do,” Venuti said. “They didn’t do anything.”

First Alert 4 asked LPD whether the department reached out to New Baden Police, given Metzger lived across the street from police headquarters there. They did not.

Documents also detail the very few calls LPD responded to on the day of Maki’s murder, including a noise complaint and dogs on the loose.

LPD declined an interview but provided a statement:

These were (2) separate incidents with a very tragic ending. Police Departments handle battery (not assault) cases on a daily basis, and many times the suspect isn’t apprehended for days/weeks after the fact. So, you are aware (Safe Act) in Illinois even if this suspect was found (this specific case) he would have been given a summons and released pending a court date. There is only one person to blame for the senseless murder of that young lady in New Baden and that is the suspect. Suggesting anything else is ridiculous.

Metzger has yet to be charged in the alleged early-morning attack on Giovanni Venuti.

According to court records, Metzger has obtained private counsel in the murder trial in which he has pled not guilty. His attorney declined to comment on the situation.

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