Man accused of hate crime homicide at Green Bay prison formally withdraws insanity plea
Jackson Vogel, 25, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide as a hate crime for the August 2024 death of 19-year-old Micah Laureano. The trial is scheduled for June 2-5.
Vogel is accused of strangling Laureano in their shared cell on the night of Aug. 27, 2024. According to court records, Vogel admitted to guards that he killed Laureano because he was "bored," and Micah 'checked all the boxes,' including the teen's race and perceived sexual orientation, which he referred to with slurs.
Records indicate that Vogel, who is White, had a history of making death threats and white supremacist declarations before he was placed in a cell with Laureano, who was Black and Hispanic.
At his arraignment in October 2024, Vogel pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, commonly referred to as an insanity plea.
At a status conference in March, attorneys discussed issues with securing an expert to testify about Vogel's insanity defense. In April, Vogel's attorney, Ann Larson, filed a letter stating that Vogel wished to withdraw that plea and "proceed to jury trial with a not guilty plea."
Vogel's plea was not formally changed until Brown County Circuit Court Judge Donald Zuidmulder approved the new plea at Vogel's final pre-trial conference May 21.
The change means Vogel's trial will only consist of one phase, rather than possible second phase to determine his criminal responsibility. It also means that if he is convicted, Vogel will face life in prison, rather than the possibility of life in a mental health facility.
Vogel is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for attempted homicide in Manitowoc County. According to court records, he repeatedly stabbed his mother in 2016, when he was 16 years old, at their home in Two Rivers.
Laureano was serving a three-year sentence for assault and vehicle theft.
While the Brown County Sheriff's Office initially stated the two had been cellmates for just hours before Laureano's death Aug. 27, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in May told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that Vogel and Laureano had been cellmates for five days, since Aug. 22.
RELATED: Micah Laureano feared for his safety at Green Bay Correctional Institution. Then, he was killed.
In a separate criminal case, Vogel is charged in Racine County with one count of threat to a family member of an officer of the court, and one count of threat to a prosecutor. According to a criminal complaint, Vogel, while incarcerated at Racine Youthful Offender Correctional Facility in spring 2024, mailed death threats to the Manitowoc County judge and prosecutor who oversaw his 2016 case. He has a status conference scheduled for that case after his homicide trial, on June 23.
Laureano's mother, Phyllis Laureano, filed a federal lawsuit in February against the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and prison officials, alleging they violated her son's constitutional rights by allowing him to suffer cruel and unusual punishment.
Laureano's death was the second homicide at Green Bay Correctional Institution in less than two years — and the second resulting in a hate crime charge.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Man accused of hate crime killing at Green Bay prison withdraws insanity plea
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Oakland officials this month touted significant decreases in crime in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2024, including a 21% drop in homicides and a 29% decrease in all violent crime, according to the midyear report by the Major Cities Chiefs Assn. Officials credited collaborations with community organizations and crisis response services through the city's Department of Violence Prevention, established in 2017. 'These results show that we're on the right track,' Mayor Barbara Lee said at a news conference. 'We're going to keep building on this progress with the same comprehensive approach that got us here.' After the president gave his assessment of Oakland last week, Lee, a steadfast Trump antagonist during her years in Congress, rejected it as 'fearmongering.' Social justice advocates agree that crime has gone down and say Trump is perpetuating exaggerated perceptions that have long plagued Oakland. Nicole Lee, executive director of Urban Peace Movement, an Oakland-based organization that focuses on empowering communities of color and young people through initiatives such as leadership training and assistance to victims of gun violence, said much credit for the gains on lower crime rates is due to community groups. 'We really want to acknowledge all of the hard work that our network of community partners and community organizations have been doing over the past couple of years coming out of the pandemic to really create real community safety,' Lee said. 'The things we are doing are working.' She worries that an intervention by military troops would undermine that progress. 'It creates kind of an environment of fear in our community,' she said. 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But that would do more harm, Lee said, disproportionately affecting young people of color and wrongfully assuming that youths are the main instigators of violence. 'If you're a young person, basically you can be cited, criminalized, simply for being outside after certain hours,' she said. 'Not only does that not solve anything in regard to violence and crime, it puts young people in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system.' For now, Johnson said, the mayors are closely watching their counterpart in Washington, Muriel Bowser, to see how she navigates the unprecedented federal intervention. She has been walking a fine line between critiquing and cooperating since Trump's takeover, but things ramped up Friday when officials sued to block the administration's naming its Drug Enforcement Administration chief as an 'emergency' head of the police force. The administration soon backed away from that move. Johnson praised Bowser for carrying on with dignity and grace. 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