A Wisconsin man who strangled his cellmate asked a judge to consider supervised release after being convicted of a hate crime, but the judge denied his request.
Jackson Vogel, 25, was already serving a 20-year prison sentence at Green Bay Correctional Institution for the attempted murder of his mother, which he committed when he was 16. Eight years into his incarceration, he was assigned a cellmate, 19-year-old Micah Laureano. Laureano had received a three-year sentence for assault and vehicle theft.
According to court records obtained by the Green Bay Press Gazette, Vogel killed Laureano shortly after his arrival.
According to investigators, Vogel smiled after the murder. According to court documents, Vogel stated that he killed Laureano because he was “bored” and because he was Black. Vogel also suspected Laureano was gay, telling investigators that his victim “checked all the boxes.”
Vogel was found guilty of Laureano’s murder in June following a trial in which he was the sole witness presented by his defence. He appeared in court for his sentence on Friday. The Green Bay Press Gazette was in the courtroom and reported that Vogel’s defence attorney, Luke Harrison, asked Brown County Circuit Court Judge Donald Zuidmulder to consider the possibility of Vogel’s attitude changing.
Harrison went on: “I believe that giving Mr. Vogel an opportunity to be released to extended supervision at some time in the future speaks to that possibility that people can change, that change does take an extremely long period of time sometimes, but that it is possible.”
Vogel also spoke on his own behalf, stating that he “may not show remorse,” and that “I may not be able to understand emotion.” I may not understand remorse itself. That is not to say that a person cannot express regret for their actions at any time. “I’m sorry.”
As he finished his statement, Vogel requested that he be granted supervised release in the future.
As Zuidmulder pointed out, a first-degree murder conviction in Wisconsin results in a mandatory life sentence. A judge has the discretion to decide whether the convicted person is eligible for supervised release at some point. Zuidmulder wasn’t feeling generous towards Vogel.
The judge began his sentencing by addressing Vogel directly, saying, “You set in motion all of the events that led us here today.”
Zuidmulder then referred to a “chilling” note written by Vogel and presented as evidence in his murder trial. The note stated, “Kill all humans,” as well as a threat to kill Black and gay people with graphic slurs.
“Mr. Vogel, at 16, you were sent into the Wisconsin State Correctional System,” he told me. “Eight years later, you commit a crime, and an anonymous human being with whom you have no real relationship is placed in your cell. And you quickly decide to kill him. You kill him in a situation where you effectively garrote him with a clothesline. Your testimony and statement, you put your knee up against him and drew him back until he went limp. “You literally squeezed the life out of him.”
The judge found Vogel’s “excited” demeanour following the murder “frightening.”
He ended by telling Vogel, “I believe you are a killing machine. I believe that after eight years in the state prison system, there has been no change. As a result, I cannot expect you to ever change.”
Vogel was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of supervised release.
