A Wisconsin man will soon face a new trial for allegedly assaulting a prison guard while currently serving two life sentences for ending the life of his girlfriend and her female best friend after he allegedly discovered them being physically intimate together.
Richard Wendell Sotka will be tried in Green Bay, Wisconsin on January 8, 2025 on one count of battery by a prisoner. He is serving two life sentences without parole after taking the life of his girlfriend, Rhonda Cegelski, and her best friend Paula O’Connor, in 2023.
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Cegelski’s daughter found the two women and called police after seeing they had been stabbed repeatedly with a large knife in the face and neck.
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Sotka revealed his involvement, saying he was “humiliated” and had gone into a “jealous rage” after catching the two having intercourse.
“You’re like a predator in the wild, going for the neck,” Judge Beau Liegeois said when giving out the sentence, according to local TV station WFRV. “That’s the only way to really describe it.”
The current charge of battery emerged in October of last year after he allegedly assaulted a guard.
“Sotka screamed something, and that is when Sotka [hit] me for the first time with a fist,” the guard said, according to local news station WLUK. “His fist hit me on my left ear. The [blow] hurt my ear and I saw stars. I yelled, ‘What are you doing?’ I heard Officer AG call for backup on the radio. Sotka continued to [pummel] me over and over again with his fist and we moved back. It felt like all the [hits] were on my head. I did not give Sotka permission to [accost] me, cause me pain, or cause me harm in any way. At one point I went into a defensive position as he kept hitting me. I finally was able to extend my arms and stop his [blows] from hitting me. Officer AG arrived, and I felt Sotka’s level of tension drop.”
Sotka pleads not guilty to this charge.
Sotka has a separate stalking charge from Ohio, which requires him to wear an ankle bracelet that has GPS monitoring. While he says he isn’t guilty of this charge, he nevertheless cut the bracelet and fled in a truck stolen from his employer, getting down to Arkansas with his passport and $4,000 in cash. This was in direct response to the terminating of his girlfriend’s life.
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