Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Hurley — The Donald Rick sentencing hearing in the Bear Trap murder-arson case has been changed from today to June 1 at 10 a.m.
Rick, 45, of Saxon, admitted to murdering Lisa Waldros of Kimball in the fire that destroyed the Bear Trap Inn in Saxon on March 12, 2016, and will be sentenced in Iron County Court.
Rick previously entered a guilty plea to first-degree murder and five additional counts were dismissed, but will be read into the record at the sentencing hearing.
A jury trial had been scheduled, but Rick gave up that right with his guilty plea.
The count carries life in prison. There is no death penalty in Wisconsin.
The plea agreement was previously reached between Rick’s attorney, Courtney Latzig, and special prosecutor Richard Dufour, who represents the Wisconsin Attorney’s General’s office.
Rick murdered Waldros, 52, of Kimball, while robbing the tavern after it closed.
He said he stabbed Waldros in burglarizing the Bear Trap, then burned the building to make it look like she had died in the fire.
Rick is a convicted sex offender and is incarcerated in the Green Bay Correctional Institute.
Jessica Carli, 41, of Saxon, Rick’s girlfriend, has been charged with aiding a felon as a party to a crime in connection with the fatal fire. She is scheduled for a 12-person jury trial on June 14-15 and is free on a $10,000 signature bond.
Dufour is also prosecuting that case.