Man gets four years for parking lot shooting

A 28-year-old Woodruff man has been sentenced to four years in prison after pleading no contest to two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety in connection with a shooting incident in the parking lot of the Minocqua Walmart store in May 2023.

Judge Mike Bloom handed down the sentence, which also includes four years extended supervision, following a 45-minute sentencing hearing Tuesday morning in which Andrew B. Geisler’s decision to fire 10 shots at two individuals — one of whom was a family member — was described by defense counsel as “11 seconds of extremely poor choice.”

In his sentencing argument, defense attorney Wright Laufenberg also compared his client to Jeff Spicoli, the stoner/surfer character played by the actor Sean Penn in the 1982 movie “Fast Times at Ridgement High.”

“He’s kind of just a surfer dude,” Laufenberg said. “The person that he presented that night is not the human being that he is. He is kind, generous. He is easy-going. He’s just totally laidback.”

Laufenberg went on to argue that Geisler’s intent on the evening in question was “noble” in an “odd” way.

According to his attorney, Geisler fired 10 shots at his family member and that person’s significant other “to scare” his relative “straight” and away from “bad choices and bad people.”

Given that he has already spent over a year in jail pending resolution of the charges, and that he will never again possess a gun, Laufenberg argued that a prison sentence is unnecessary.

“He goes from no criminal convictions in any way to (being) a felon for the rest of his life because of, basically, 11 seconds of extremely poor choice,” he argued.

Laufenberg also noted that the family member has forgiven Geisler and agreed with the defense recommendation of an imposed and stayed sentence with probation.

As for the other individual Geisler fired on, Laufenberg argued that person’s hands are “not clean” because they sent a series of taunting text messages to Geisler prior to the incident.

“I believe that Andrew is going to go back to the easy-going, nice, polite, sweet kid that he is,” Laufenberg added.

In her statement, Oneida County district attorney Jillian Pfeifer noted that it was only “by the grace of God” that no one was injured or killed as a result of Geisler’s “extremely reckless” conduct. One of the individuals happen to “duck” at precisely the right time, she stressed, adding that Geisler was under the influence of Gabapentin and cannabinoids when he opened fire in a public parking lot.

While Geisler is relatively young and has no prior criminal record, Pfeifer argued the gravity of the offense requires prison time.

She recommended two years confinement on each of the two counts to be served consecutively.

Given his chance to speak, Geisler admitted that he “strayed away” from his usual “peaceful, happy self” and put the lives of others in danger.

“In my clouded judgment, I was trying to take the law into my own hands, which was the dumbest and most unsafe thing I could have done,” he said, adding that he should have “trusted law enforcement and fate in general.”

He told Bloom that he has learned from his mistakes and wants to go back to his “peaceful self.”

“I’m grateful that no one was hurt,” he continued. “I am grateful for my God-given life and I do not want to waste that any further and I don’t want to put anyone in harm’s way and will not.”

When it was his turn to speak, Bloom also referenced “Fast Times at Ridgement High”.

“I hung out with guys like Jeff Spicoli,” he said. “The last thing that anyone like that would ever have thought about doing was (using) a gun. There’s something inside of Mr. Geisler that wasn’t in Jeff Spicoli or this never would have happened.”

As for the text messages, Bloom noted he was a criminal defense attorney for 12 years and can’t estimate the number of times he had to explain to clients that “the fact that the other guy is an (expletive) isn’t a defense.”

Bloom called the state’s recommendation measured and agreed with Pfeifer that “the most salient factor is the gravity of the offense” and that probation would unduly depreciate the seriousness of the conduct.

“If this is a single brief incident that occurred that is uncharacteristic for Mr. Geisler, and I don’t necessarily have any basis to say that it’s not, you picked a doozy, to put in charitably,” he told the defendant.

He then handed down a sentence that was a “de facto equivalent” of the state’s recommendation. On each of the two counts of recklessly endangering safety, he sentenced Geisler to four years confinement to be followed by four years extended supervision to be served concurrently. With credit for over a year already served, he is expected to remain confined for approximately two years and 11 months before the extended supervision portion of the sentence begins.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].