Green Bay prisoner accused of killing cellmate pleads to insanity

Editor’s Note: This story contains content that readers may find disturbing.

GREEN BAY – A Green Bay Correctional Facility prisoner who pleaded guilty to insanity Tuesday in the murder of his cellmate in August faces additional charges for allegedly sending death threats to a judge and to a prosecutor months earlier.

Jackson Vogel, 24, is accused of fatally strangling Micah Laureano, 19, on the night of August 27. He is charged in Brown County Circuit Court with first-degree intentional homicide, considered a hate crime.

At his arraignment Tuesday morning, Vogel entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, commonly known as an insanity plea.

A trial has been set for January 27-31. This trial could have two phases: one to determine whether Vogel killed Laureano and a second to determine whether he should be held criminally responsible because of his mental state at the time of Laureano’s death.

According to the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, Vogel and Laureano had shared a cell in the jail’s processing center just hours before Laureano was killed. Laureano’s mother, Phyllis Laureano, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin that she is working to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Green Bay Correctional Facility for placing her son in the same cell as Vogel, who was serving a two-decade prison sentence for attempted homicide. Phyllis Laureano said she believes the prison failed to protect her son’s safety.

Laureano, on the other hand, was serving a three-year prison sentence for concurrent cases in Waukesha and Columbia counties involving robbery and battery.

On Oct. 3, the same day as his preliminary hearing in the Brown County homicide case, Vogel was charged in Racine County with one count of threatening a family member of a court officer and one count of threatening a prosecutor. both class F felonies.

A criminal complaint for the case says a Manitowoc County Circuit Court judge received a “threatening letter” from Vogel on May 5 and a prosecutor received a similar letter on May 28. Both letters were sent from the Racine juvenile delinquent center, where Vogel was incarcerated. at the time.

Vogel, a native of Two Rivers, was sentenced in Manitowoc County in 2017 to 20 years in prison followed by 20 years of extended supervision for the attempted stabbing of a family member while he was 16 years old.

In the letter to the judge, Vogel thanked the judge for sending him to prison, which he said “has become my home.” He also wrote that he planned to “torture” and kill the victim of his attempted homicide and his family, then do the same to the judge’s family, according to the complaint.

“Torture is a fun tool. Don’t you think?” the letters say, according to the complaint.

In the letter to the judge, Vogel also referenced his release in 13 years and wrote, “It’s a bluff!” Only a supermax can stop me or stop my death,” the complaint reads.

The letter to the prosecutor contains anti-Semitic and misogynistic remarks and states that “humans are nothing more than cattle to be slaughtered,” according to the complaint.

Both letters refer to cannibalism.

RELATED: Green Bay prisoner charged with killing cellmate in hate crime awaiting trial

According to online records, Vogel was transferred from the Racine Juvenile Delinquent Facility to the Dodge Correctional Facility on June 18 and then transferred to the Green Bay Correctional Facility on June 19.

He is scheduled to appear virtually for the first time in the Racine County case at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

For the Brown County homicide case, Vogel’s next court appearances will be at the final two pretrial hearings, at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 22 and 11:30 a.m. Jan. 3.

Laureano’s death is the second homicide in two years at the Green Bay Correctional Facility linked to a hate crime investigation. In October 2022, Joshua Scolman, 40, fatally stabbed Timothy Nabors, 25, and attempted to kill a second person during a drug distribution.

Scolman was convicted after a jury trial in April of one count of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, both considered felonies hateful. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.

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