ALLOUEZ – A 19-year-old inmate at the Green Bay Correctional Institution died Tuesday night following an incident with his cellmate, officials said Wednesday.
Micah Laureano died around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday after “an incident in his cell” involving his cellmate, said Beth Hardtke, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
Brown County Sheriff Todd Delain confirmed Laureano’s death early Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon, the sheriff’s office said in a statement that the death was being investigated as a homicide.
The sheriff’s office identified Laureano’s cellmate, but as of Wednesday afternoon he had not been charged in connection with Laureano’s death. USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin does not identify people as suspects in crimes for which they have not been charged.
Laureano was “beyond help” when medical personnel and Brown County officials arrived, according to the sheriff’s office. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
No employee was injured in the incident, Hardtke said.
Laureano had been in Green Bay Prison since April, serving a three-year sentence for concurrent robbery and assault cases in Waukesha and Columbia counties, according to public records.
The sheriff’s office said no further information would be released at this time.
It is the latest in a series of deaths in the state’s prisons. In the past 14 months, six inmates have died at Waupun Correctional Institution and a guard died after an attack by a teenager at Lincoln Hills School for Boys.
According to the DOC, the Green Bay Correctional Institution was on lockdown for over a year until the prison resumed normal operations on July 28. The lockdown was a result of staffing shortages throughout the DOC.
RELATED: Prison officials told Wisconsin lawmakers that a staff shortage could prove fatal.
This story will be updated.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
