Attempted homicide case resolved short of trial

The 27-year-old Woodruff man charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in connection with a May 2023 incident in the parking lot of the Minocqua Walmart store will be back in court on June 11 for sentencing.

According to court records, the Oneida County district attorney’s office and legal counsel for Andrew B. Geisler have come to an agreement resolving all charges related to the May 21 incident.

According to press release issued by the Minocqua Police Department, officers responded to the Walmart parking lot on Northridge Way on May 21, 2023 after gunshots were reported.

Upon arrival, investigators determined that the incident stemmed from a domestic situation.

There were no injuries.

Minocqua Police Chief Dave Jaeger said the shooter, later identified as Geisler, had left the scene and was taken into custody at his residence.

According to the criminal complaint, two people reported Geisler shot at their vehicle several times and a well-timed duck prevented serious injury or death.

“He just wasn’t aiming into the air to scare me,” one of the two alleged victims told police. “It was right at my (expletive) head if I wouldn’t have gone on the ground.” 

The complaint also indicates Geisler may have been intending to fight one of the two individuals in the parking lot.

A handgun, several gun cases and six gun magazines with bullets in them were found during a subsequent search of Geisler’s residence, according to the complaint. 

A gun was also found in Geisler’s vehicle.

“The defendant fired ten rounds at the vehicle, all hitting the vehicle,” then-assistant district attorney Jillian Pfeifer told Judge Mike Bloom during a bail hearing last year. “He was inches away from one of those bullets striking Victim 2.”

“Despite the fact that apparently no person was actually injured as a result of the defendant’s conduct, the conduct is aggravated,” Bloom agreed. 

In addition to two counts of attempted first degree intentional homicide, Geisler was charged with operating a firearm while intoxicated, a misdemeanor.

The details of the agreement were not spelled out, but the letter states that the district attorney’s office is expected to request a prison sentence while defense attorney Wright Laufenberg intends to ask the court to impose and stay the sentence and place the defendant on probation.

“The defense will be asking to take into account the approximate year or more the defendant will have sat in jail by the time we get to sentencing,” Laufenberg wrote in an April 19 letter to the court.

Geisler has been in custody since the incident on $100,000 cash bail.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].