November 6, 2015 at 4:41 p.m.
Wolf gets 12 years for role in 2003 murder
Judge: Victim was 'brutalized without mercy'
Wolf gets 12 years for role in 2003 murder
Latoya J. Wolf, 34, who was initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide (as a party to the crime) in connection with the death of Kenneth "Punky" Wells, appeared in Branch II of Oneida County Circuit Court before Judge Michael Bloom.
Her public defender, Chris Gramstrup, and Oneida County district attorney Michael Bloom had previously worked out a plea agreement which involves Wolf providing testimony against her ex-husband Shannon Wolf, who has also been charged in connection with Wells' death.
Wolf has claimed that her ex-husband actually killed Wells while she, taking his orders, assisted.
In exchange for Wolf's no contest plea on July 30 to second-degree intentional homicide (as a party to a crime), and her testimony against her ex-husband when he goes on trial in January, Schiek asked for 12 years incarceration and 13 years extended supervision. The maximum sentence on the class B felony is 60 years, with a split sentence of 40 years behind bars and 20 years extended supervision.
At the plea hearing, Bloom ordered the Department of Corrections to conduct a pre-sentence investigation, the results of which were referred to numerous times during Friday's sentencing. The author of the pre-sentence investigation report recommended a sentence of between nine and 13 years initial incarceration and five to six years extended supervision.
Prior to his remarks to Bloom regarding Wolf's sentence, Schiek presented the judge with victim impact statements from Wells' brother and two sisters. The statements were not read aloud, however.
One of the factors Schiek asked Bloom to consider is the gravity of the offense.
"In this case, we have a homicide, the defendant took the life of Kenneth Wells," Schiek said.
Wells' body was recovered from the Wisconsin River behind the Trig's Riverwalk Centre on July 1, 2003. Although court records indicate Latoya Wolf first told police she had information about Wells' death back in 2012, she was not charged until Jan. 19.
Schiek also referenced a video reenactment of what Wolf claims her ex-husband did to Wells that night under the Davenport Street bridge in Rhinelander. The video was played at Shannon Wolf's preliminary hearing.
"There was a great amount of suffering. I can't imagine what was going through Mr. Wells' mind when he went under the (Davenport Street) bridge to what he thought was to smoke some dope," Schiek said.
According to Wolf's video reenactment, Wells was hit in the head with rocks and had a plastic bag tied around his head before he was pushed, still moaning, into the river.
While it took Wolf years to come forward, and her interest in self-preservation made her initial statements to police inconsistent, Schiek noted she did eventually provide detectives with the story of what happened that night.
"I think her guilty conscience did get the better of her," he said.
In addition to the prison sentence recommendation he made at the July hearing, Schiek asked that Wolf pay $10,000 in restitution to Wells' family plus a $1,000 statutory surcharge.
In his statement to Bloom, Gramstrup said it's obvious that the events of June 28, 2003 have been weighing heavily on his client's conscience. He said Wolf was in an abusive relationship with her ex-husband and feared that he would harm her "or worse" if she said anything to authorities about what happened the night Wells died. He agreed with Schiek that even after she decided to come forward after Shannon Wolf was sent to prison on an unrelated charge in 2012, she had to overcome her instinct for self-preservation to fully implicate herself in the murder.
He then recommended a sentence of nine years initial incarceration followed by six years extended supervision.
Wolf then read a short statement expressing her remorse.
"I'm sorry that it took so long to come forward," she told Bloom.
In this case, Bloom opined that the gravity of the offense was the most important of the standard sentencing considerations.
"This was a violent, painful series of events that led to a brutal murder," he said,
The judge said Wolf's decision to come forward does reflect favorably on her character, however the fact that her initial story was inconsistent, and led to an arrest warrant for another person being issued and later dropped, reflects negatively on her character.
"It does not mean she has a bad character, it might mean she has a weak character," her said.
Based on information about the couple's family life he reviewed and released for use in Shannon Wolf's case, it is obvious that Latoya Wolf was afraid of her ex-husband, Bloom said.
"Still, there were avenues where Ms. Wolf could have unburdened herself relatively early," he noted.
Bloom said he believes Wolf is remorseful for her part in the murder and for having kept her silence for so long. However, he added, the nature of the crime demands a harsh sentence.
"While not rising to torture, he was brutalized without mercy until he was put in the river to die," Bloom said of Wells.
Calling it "reasonable" and "fair," Bloom then adopted Schiek's recommendation and sentenced Wolf to 12 years incarceration and 13 years supervision.
Shannon Wolf's trial on a charge of first-degree intentional homicide (as a party to the crime) was originally scheduled to be held before Latoya Wolf was to be sentenced, however, at the request of his attorney Maggie Hogan, it was postponed until January to allow time for Hogan to finish gathering and evaluate evidence, including some from documents from the Department of Social Services Bloom ordered released in September.
The trial is now scheduled for Monday, Jan. 11, 2016 and will run through Friday Jan. 15. It will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 19 and is scheduled to finish on Friday, Jan. 22.
The nine-day trial will be broken up by the three-day Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
Bloom has scheduled a final pre-trial hearing for Dec. 10 to allow for rulings on any final motions filed by either side.
Jamie Taylor may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.