Prosecutors and the judge framed the case around both Tammy Leslie’s death and the confinement of the couple’s son and daughter inside the family home.
BEATRICE, Neb. — Christopher Milke’s life sentence for killing Tammy Leslie settled the homicide count, but much of the case in Gage County turned on another question: what happened to the couple’s children after their mother was shot inside the home they all shared.
That focus shaped the charges, the evidence and the judge’s remarks at sentencing. Milke, 53, was convicted not only of first-degree murder, but also kidnapping and first-degree false imprisonment after prosecutors said he kept the children, then 11 and 19, inside the house for hours, took away their phones and blocked the exits. The added counts made clear that the state saw two crimes unfolding at once: a fatal shooting and the forced confinement of the children who lived through it.
Assistant Attorney General Michael Jensen said at sentencing that Milke had never accepted responsibility and had not recognized that his children were victims, too. Judge Rick Schreiner struck a similar note as he imposed the sentence, saying Milke showed no remorse. Those comments pointed to a central feature of the prosecution’s theory. The children were not background witnesses who happened to be nearby. Their accounts described the moments after the shooting, the control Milke maintained inside the house and the reason police had to plan a rescue instead of a routine welfare check. By the time officers entered, the state argued, Leslie was dead and the children were still being held there.
The son told police he heard four gunshots around 1 a.m. on Sept. 8, 2024, while he was in his bedroom. He said his father then made him hand over his phone and go to the living room. The daughter came home around 1:30 a.m. and later told police that Milke said he had killed her mother. Investigators said he took her phone as well. Court records described Leslie, 52, as having been shot several times in the head and chest. The daughter later regained access to her phone only after Milke fell asleep. Her call to 911 set off the police response that ended with officers breaching the home at about 6:20 a.m. and leading both children to safety.
The scene inside and around the house added weight to the confinement charges. According to investigators, the daughter reported that every exit had been sealed, and police later said Milke had been screwing the doors shut nightly for about a month. Authorities said he suspected Leslie of infidelity and had been trying to stop her from leaving. That detail widened the case from one night’s violence to an alleged pattern of control. Police also said they believed alcohol abuse was involved during that stretch. When officers finally went in, they said Milke had a 9 mm pistol on him. Leslie’s body was found in the bedroom, and the children were removed from a home that prosecutors said had effectively been turned into a trap.
Those facts translated into a broad guilty verdict in February. After a trial that began Feb. 2, jurors convicted Milke on Feb. 12 of first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony, kidnapping, first-degree false imprisonment and tampering with physical evidence. The murder conviction carried a mandatory life term, but the kidnapping conviction led to a second life sentence, and the other counts added decades more. The sentence reflected how the court viewed the harm. Leslie was the person killed, but the children were central to the punishment because the state showed they were restrained, isolated and forced to remain in the house through the night.
Milke tried to resist that conclusion at sentencing. He said, “It wasn’t murder, and that’s all I’m gonna say,” after complaining that the proceedings had not been fair. Schreiner rejected that argument and referred to an incriminating statement tied to the evidence, saying Milke had declared, “I finally killed somebody.” The judge’s response and the prosecutor’s remarks left little doubt about how the courtroom understood the case: as a domestic killing whose impact was measured not only in one death, but also in what two children were made to endure before dawn.
With sentencing complete, the case is now positioned for any appeal Milke may file. For now, the court record ends where the state’s argument did: Leslie is dead, the convictions stand, and the children’s role in the case remains inseparable from the sentence imposed on March 19.
Author note: Last updated April 13, 2026.