Jury convicts Wisconsin inmate accused of killing cellmate for being Black and gay

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man doing time for trying to kill his mother was convicted Wednesday of strangling his cellmate to death.

A jury found Jackson Vogel, 25, guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the death of 19-year-old Micah Laureano at the Green Bay Correctional Institution last year, WLUK-TV reported. Vogel told investigators he killed Laureano because Laureano was Black and gay.

Vogel’s attorneys, public defenders Ann Larson and Luke Harrison, didn’t immediately return voicemail messages seeking comment. He faces a mandatory life sentence when he is sentenced on June 27.

He is already serving a 20-year prison term handed down in 2018 for repeatedly stabbing his mother, strangling her and attempting to snap her neck, according to an appellate opinion upholding that conviction.

A guard found Laureano’s body hanging from the top bunk of the cell he shared with Vogel on Aug. 27, according to a criminal complaint. Laureano’s hands and feet were tied together with orange material.

Vogel, who is white, told the guard that he killed Laureano because Laureano was Black and gay, the complaint said. He said he knocked Laureano out, tied his hands and feet and strangled him.

Investigators discovered numerous cut strips of orange cloth around the cell as well as a handwritten note that said, “Kill all humans!” followed by profanities directed at Black people and gay people, according to the complaint.

Laureano was serving a three-year sentence in battery and robbery cases. His mother, Phyllis Laureano, filed a federal lawsuit in February accusing prison officials of failing to protect him from Vogel. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Green Bay Correctional Institution, a maximum security facility, opened in 1898. Republicans have been calling for years to close the prison along with the Waupun Correctional Institution, another maximum security facility where seven inmates have died since 2023. But concerns over job losses and the cost of building a new prison have stymied any progress on either front.