Drug dealer pays Kenneth Twyman's $112K bail, set for release

MILWAUKEE - Kenneth Twyman, one of Wisconsin’s Most Wanted, is set to go free again thanks to the generosity of a convicted drug trafficker. 

Twyman has been caught by U.S. Marshals three times. He's posted bail three times. His trial is still four months away, but Nov. 22, he’s scheduled to get out of jail again.

"That Kenny Twyman is a dangerous, dangerous individual," said LaTrisa Jenkins. 

She ought to know. Twyman is charged with shooting her grandson, Tayvon Luckett, to death in April, but for even the most violent accused criminals in Wisconsin, freedom is a cash payment away.

"It’s nothing for a drug dealer," said another relative of Luckett.

When one of Wisconsin's Most Wanted needed a quick hundred grand, his family went looking for a man named Richard Stulo.

FOX6 Investigator Bryan Polcyn found him.

Polcyn: "I’m trying to find a little bit more about why you posted $100,000 for Kenny Twyman?"

Stulo: "I ain’t go no comment to you guys, man. Get out of here," 

Polcyn: "How do you know Kenny Twyman?"

Stulo: "Get out of here. It doesn’t matter. Go."

Stulo owns Colt Construction. He is also a drug dealer, convicted of using his house near 29th and Cleveland as home base for dealing marijuana.

When police raided the house in 2018, they found nine guns, more than three pounds of weed, and $101,720 in cash.

SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News

Four years later, Stulo had another $100,000 (and more) available to help Twyman.

"What’s your connection to Kenny Twyman?" Polcyn asked. 

"Do I have to hire an attorney to go after you? Can you please leave?" Stulo replied.

"It’s drugs," said a Luckett relative. "Absolutely. Drugs. It has to be drugs."

Twyman is a three-time fugitive, picked up by U.S. Marshals in Milwaukee, Oak Creek and Little Rock, Arkansas.

"He doesn’t just flee and not come back to court," said Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Melissa Dilavy. "He flees the jurisdiction. He flees the state of Wisconsin."

In 2018, Milwaukee County prosecutors charged him with leading police on a high-speed chase, causing a crash that hurt three people and leaving behind a rolling drug house with seven cellphones, including one that contained an especially troubling video. It shows Twyman driving through a Milwaukee neighborhood firing an automatic weapon out of the driver's side window.

"A complete menace to this city," said a member of the U.S. Marshals Service in 2018.

In December 2018, the U.S. Marshals fugitive unit tracked Twyman down, but a few months later, Twyman posted $3,000 cash bail and disappeared again. It wasn't until January 2022 that U.S. Marshals picked him up for a second time. He posted $9,500 bail and got out again.

In April, police say Twyman shook hands with Luckett outside a gas station convenience store and then shot him twice, killing him.

"After shaking my grandson’s hand," Jenkins said. "How cowardly!"

"This would have never happened if he wouldn’t have been out," said Lakischa Pierce, Luckett's mother. "He shouldn’t have been out of jail."

Prosecutors charged Twyman with homicide and secured a warrant for his arrest. In July, U.S. Marshals arrested him for the third time in three years.

This time, a Milwaukee County judge set bail at $100,000. He doubled the bail in his other pending cases. With $12,500 already paid, he would need another $112,500 to get out.

Within a few weeks, Richard Stulo paid all of it.

"Who and why is the question," said a Luckett relative who asked not to be identified out of fear for her safety. She said this is all happening as the criminal justice system watches.

"I think the Department of Corrections should answer some questions for us," she said.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX6 News app for iOS or Android

Stulo is still on probation (see Stulo's case notes obtained through open records). It wasn't until after FOX6 News first reported the bail payment in August that his probation agent asked for an explanation.

"His probation should be revoked," Jenkins said. "He should be in prison, as well."

According to probation records obtained by the FOX6 Investigators, Stulo told his agent he "doesn't know Kenneth Twyman," he knows his parents from church and from a landscaping business where he met Twyman's father. A signed loan agreement provided to his agent shows Stulo is charging Twyman's family "an additional $10,000" for loaning them the money to bail Twyman out. 

It's Stulo's name on the bail documents. Wisconsin state law prohibits anyone from profiting from a bail payment. That's why Wisconsin doesn't have bail bond companies, but a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections says it "does not have any reason" to believe Stulo has violated his probation.

Stulo's loan got Twyman out of the Milwaukee County Jail in August, but before he could go free, the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office transferred him to Waukesha to face drug charges there.

"This is odd that I have someone who qualifies for public defender representation but is literally sitting on $125,000 worth of cash," said Court Commissioner David Herring.

Assistant DA Dilavy warned that Twyman was a high risk to flee the state.

"He was on jail calls figuring out places to go, including California and Las Vegas," she said.

Herring set Twyman's bail at $200,000, but bail only applies pretrial, while a case is pending. 

In October, Twyman pleaded guilty to the Waukesha charges and the judge sentenced him to 180 days in jail.

"I feel like if he gets out, he’s going to run again and possibly commit more crimes," Pierce said.

That's why Luckett's family was stunned when they received a text message indicating Twyman will be released after just 6 weeks.

"I just could not believe it," Jenkins said. 

According to administrators at the Waukesha County Jail, Twyman received 94 days of credit for time already served. Plus, he is being given 45 days of "good time" credit for his behavior in jail. Because of that, he's due to be released Nov. 22, two days before Thanksgiving. 

"It’s like, a slap in the face," Pierce said.

His homicide trial in Milwaukee is still four months away.

"Any chance he comes back to court if he gets out?" Polcyn asked.

"No," Pierce said.

"He’s going to run again!" another Luckett relative said. "He’s going to escape."

If cash bail protects the public, Luckett's family should have little to fear, but they are afraid.

"We are afraid for our family," one relative said.

"It is scary," Jenkins said. "Very scary. Very scary."

When drug dealers pay to set accused killers free, there's 100,000 reasons to wonder.

Some advocates for bail reform in Wisconsin say cash bail should be eliminated and replaced with risk-based pretrial detention. Others say judges just need to set higher bail amounts.

It's a topic that's expected to come up again in Wisconsin's next legislative session in 2023.

FOX6 did reach out to Twyman's attorney, Mark Richards, for comment. He declined.

Late Wednesday, FOX6 learned a federal grand jury indicted Twyman on drug and gun charges. It's not yet clear how or if this will impact his scheduled release.