Attorneys for Jackson Vogel, charged with first-degree intentional homicide as a hate crime in the death of his cellmate at Green Bay Correctional Institution, are asking a jury to land on a lesser conviction of second-degree intentional homicide.
Vogel’s trial got underway June 2 with jury selection and opening statements.
Vogel, 25, of Two Rivers, is accused of fatally strangling 19-year-old Micah Laureano, of Waukesha, on the evening of Aug. 27, 2024, in their shared cell at Green Bay Correctional Institution. While conducting a routine cell check around 9:30 p.m., a guard found Laureano’s unconscious body tied to the bunk bed, according to records and testimony at the first day of the trial.
Vogel immediately admitted to guards that he killed Laureano, and told an investigator he killed Laureano because he was “bored,” and Laureano “checked all the boxes,” including the teen’s race and perceived sexual orientation, which he referred to with slurs, according to records.
Jackson Vogel looks out of a window as the jury receives instructions before opening statements on Monday, June 2, 2025, at the Brown County Courthouse in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Vogel stands accused of murdering Micah Laureano when the two were cellmates at Green Bay Correctional Insitution in August 2024. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
“We’re not disputing that Mr. Vogel’s actions caused Mr. Laureano’s death,” Vogel’s attorney, Ann Larson, said in the defense’s opening statement. “Our sole contentions in this trial are whether he intended to kill Mr. Laureano and, second, whether he selected Mr. Laureano based on his race and based on his sexual orientation.”
Larson said Vogel is taking the affirmative defense of “adequate provocation,” which, according to state statutes, means the victim did something that caused “complete lack of self-control in an ordinarily constituted person.”
The defense attorney said that since Vogel and Laureano were first paired together as cellmates five days before Laureano’s death, there was a “growing agitation” between the two. Larson claimed Laureano made unwanted sexual advances toward Vogel.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and attorneys’ opening statements, Vogel and Laureano were first placed in a cell together Aug. 22, in cell 324 of the prison’s treatment center, an area for prisoners kept outside of general population.
Then, on Aug. 27, the two were moved to cell 316 so maintenance could fix a clogged sink, according to an investigation report from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office. Staff then found a bulletin board had been broken off from the cell’s desk, and issued Vogel a conduct report for destroying property.
Larson said Vogel broke the desk beause he “was trying to get away from Mr. Laureano and the situation,” but after the two were moved to a different cell together, Vogel “snapped.”
Brown County Assistant District Attorney Claire Lamal returns to the prosecution table after delivering an opening statement to the jury on Monday, June 2, 2025, at the Brown County Courthouse in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Jackson Vogel stands accused of murdering Micah Laureano when the two were cellmates at Green Bay Correctional Insitution in August 2024. Tork Mason/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
It’s a very different picture of what happened than what prosecutors are arguing.
In the prosecution’s opening statement, Brown County Assistant District Attorney Claire Lamal said Vogel deliberately decided to kill Laureano.
“Jackson Vogel made the decision to kill his cellmate, Micah Laureano. He strung him up, he strangled him, and ultimately Micah died from his injuries,” Lamal said. “And then Jackson Vogel admitted to what he had done. He admitted that he killed Micah. He admitted that he intended to kill Micah. And he admitted that he did it because of his perception of Micah’s race as well as his sexual orientation.”
Vogel, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for attempting to kill his mother in 2016, told an investigator he intentionally killed Laureano, according to the sheriff’s investigation report.
“Me, I just wanted to have killed a person. I got that wish. I like it,” Vogel said, according to the report.
Records indicate Vogel, who is White, had previously made white supremacist statements and death threats before he was paired in a cell with Laureano, who was Black and Hispanic.
RELATED: Micah Laureano feared for his safety at Green Bay Correctional Institution. Then, he was killed.
RELATED: Jackson Vogel trial set for June 2, accused of hate crime in death of cellmate at Green Bay Correctional
Laureano was serving a three-year prison term for assault and vehicle theft, with concurrent sentences in Waukesha, Columbia and Eau Claire counties. He had been in prison for just seven months, and only four of those at Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Vogel’s trial is scheduled to last through June 5, although it may end sooner.
Among the first witnesses to testify June 2 were Laureano’s mother, Phyllis Laureano, and the first correctional officer on the scene.
Larson said Vogel plans to testify later in the trial.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Trial begins for Jackson Vogel, charged in Green Bay prison homicide
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