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An inmate discovered useless at a maximum-security jail in northeastern Wisconsin was strangled, investigators mentioned Thursday.
Brown County Sheriff’s Workplace deputies and medical personnel had been known as to the Inexperienced Bay Correctional Establishment on Tuesday night for a report of a pulseless inmate who wasn’t respiration. They discovered 19-year-old Micah Laureano useless on the scene. It’s unclear precisely the place within the jail Laureano was discovered.
The sheriff’s workplace mentioned that an preliminary investigation decided that Laureano had been killed in his cell and his 24-year-old cellmate was a suspect.
The sheriff’s workplace mentioned in an up to date information launch Thursday that an post-mortem revealed Laureano had been strangled.
Laureano and the suspect had been collectively within the cell for less than hours earlier than his loss of life, the sheriff’s workplace added. The discharge didn’t say particularly how lengthy that they had been collectively.
The investigation is ongoing, and expenses are anticipated to be filed late subsequent week, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
On-line court docket information point out that Laureano was sentenced to 2 years within the state jail system in January for being a celebration to substantial battery in Waukesha County, with the primary 12 months to be served behind bars and the second on prolonged supervision. His lawyer in that case, public defender Maura McMahon, described Laureano as a “humorous, considerate younger man and a gifted artist” in an electronic mail to The Related Press.
Laureano’s cellmate was sentenced to 40 years within the jail system in January 2018 for tried murder in Manitowoc County, with 20 years to be served behind bars and 20 years on prolonged supervision. The cellmate was 18 years outdated when he was sentenced.
Requested for touch upon the incident, state Division of Corrections spokesperson Beth Williams Hardtke responded with an electronic mail acknowledging that Laureano died Tuesday after an “incident in his cell.” She mentioned no workers members had been harm, and regulation enforcement was investigating. The jail was working usually with all scheduled actions persevering with as typical, she mentioned.
Laureano’s loss of life is one other blow for the Division of Corrections because it struggles to guard inmates and jail employees within the face of getting old amenities and persistent staffing shortages.
5 inmates on the maximum-security Waupun Correctional Establishment have died since June 2023. Two killed themselves, one died of a fentanyl overdose, one died of a stroke, and one died of malnutrition and dehydration. Prosecutors charged the jail’s former warden, Randall Hepp, and eight different Waupun workers members this previous June with misconduct in reference to the stroke and malnutrition deaths.
Males held at Waupun have filed a category motion lawsuit alleging mistreatment, together with not getting access to well being care. And the U.S. Division of Justice is investigating a potential smuggling ring on the jail.
Simply weeks after the fees got here down towards Hepp and his staffers at Waupun, Corey Proulx, a counselor on the state’s youth jail exterior Irma, died after a 16-year-old inmate punched him within the face. His loss of life sparked calls from the ability’s workers and Republican legislators to carry a court-imposed ban on pepper spray. The federal choose who imposed the prohibition in 2018 has thus far refused to contemplate their requests.
Waupun opened in 1854. Inexperienced Bay Correctional Establishment opened in 1898. Republicans have been calling for years to shut each prisons, saying they’ve outlived their usefulness. However considerations over job losses within the communities and the price of constructing a brand new jail, estimated at as a lot as $1 billion, have confirmed to be hindrances. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has tried to deal with the jail system’s issues by giving guards raises.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our e-newsletter to get our investigative tales and Friday information roundup. This story is revealed in partnership with The Related Press.
