Man ‘snapped’ when he saw girlfriend with another woman, killed them both, officials say
A Wisconsin man was found guilty of charges in connection to a 2023 stabbing death of two women.
The case began in January 2023, when police were called to a duplex at about 11:15 a.m. Jan. 29, according to a Jan. 30 news release from the Green Bay Police Department.
Police found Rhonda Cegelski, 58, and Paula O’Connor, 53, dead, according to a Feb. 2, 2023, news release.
According to a criminal complaint, Richard Sotka admitted to killing the women, WLUK reported.
Sotka told police he was home with the two women, one of whom was his girlfriend, and the three of them had been drinking, the Appleton Post-Crescent reported. He said he saw the two women kissing and “just snapped,” police told the news outlet.
Prosecutors said the women were “repeatedly stabbed in the face and neck with an 8-inch blade,” the Post-Crescent reported.
Sotka fled the home after the attack and was arrested in Arkansas a few hours after police discovered the women’s bodies, a Feb. 1, 2023, news release said.
Sotka was wearing a GPS monitoring device for an unrelated case in Oconto County at the time police said the killings happened, according to WBAY. However, the device was later found in a ditch, officials told the news outlet.
“(Sotka) stated, ‘I’m guilty of killing these girls but I’m not guilty of what they said I did in Oconto County,’” the criminal complaint said, according to WLUK.
Cegelski was a mother of four, according to a GoFundMe page.
“Rhonda would light up any room with her smile and vibrant personality. She had a heart of gold and would always be there when others needed it,” the page said.
Sotka told police he was “humiliated” when he saw the two women together, WLUK reported.
“He said he couldn’t tell (a detective) details or tell (a detective) exactly what happened but he knows he completely lost it,” the criminal complaint said, according to WLUK.
At trial, his attorney hoped the jury would settle on a lesser charge of first-degree reckless homicide, instead of first-degree intentional homicide, according to the Appleton Post-Crescent.
“He cried, he was in pain himself over what happened,” Sotka’s attorney Kirk Obear said, according to the news outlet. “He was asking out loud while he was crying, ‘How could this have happened? What happened?’”
McClatchy News reached out to Obear for comment March 13 but did not immediately hear back.
On March 11, it took a Brown County jury one hour to return a guilty verdict in Sotka’s trial. He was found guilty of two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and six other charges, WBAY reported.
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