Wisconsin man sentenced to life in prison for killing cellmate because he was Black

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man doing time for trying to kill his mother was sentenced Friday to life in prison for strangling his cellmate.

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

Brown County Circuit Judge Donald Zuidmulder sentenced Vogel to life in prison with no possibility for extended supervision, which is similar to parole.

Vogel told the judge he was sorry just before he was sentenced.

“I may not show remorse, I may not be able to understand emotion, I may not be able to understand remorse itself,” Vogel said. “That doesn’t mean that a person cannot be sorry for what they did at any point in time. Because I am sorry.”

Vogel was already serving a 20-year prison term handed down in 2018 for repeatedly stabbing his mother, choking her and attempting to snap her neck in a failed attempt to kill her.

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.

Green Bay Correctional Institution, a maximum security facility, opened in 1898. Gov. Tony Evers has proposed closing the prison as part of an overhaul of the state correctional system.