Tim Ryan tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
A Gillett man committed to a mental institution for an armed standoff with sheriff’s deputies in Wittenberg three years ago was granted a conditional early release after a hearing in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Travis W. Keiler, 31, was ordered confined for 26½ years in August 2014. He has been incarcerated at the Mendota Mental Health Institute.
Before he is released, the state Department of Health Services will have to present the court with a conditional release plan that will include monitoring by Wisconsin Probation and Parole. That plan needs to be presented to the court within 60 days.
Judge William Kussel Jr. heard testimony Tuesday from psychologist Michael Galli, who recommended Keiler’s release but added that Keiler will need ongoing monitoring.
Keiler was arrested on April 22, 2014, after a two-hour standoff. He was accused of going armed into the Wittenberg Shell station and McDonald’s, 413 N. Genesee St., where he said he “wanted to shoot it out with the police,” according to the criminal complaint.
Shawano County deputies, with the assistance of the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office, secured the area and closed U.S. Highway 45 for the duration of the incident. An armored vehicle and a Marathon County sniper were among the resources brought in during the incident.
Keiler let everyone out of the building except for one McDonald’s employee, 26-year-old Jacob Kujawa, of Wittenberg, whom he kept as a hostage for about an hour.
Kujawa spoke at one point with a Shawano County hostage negotiator and told him he was unharmed but that Keiler was holding a gun on him, according to the criminal complaint.
Keiler told a hostage negotiator he had quit his job in De Pere and had been driving around before ending up at the Wittenberg Shell station.
The negotiator convinced Keiler to release Kujawa as a sign of good faith. Keiler surrendered peacefully an hour after that.
Keiler entered a plea of no contest to charges of taking a hostage and failing to comply with an officer’s attempt to take him into custody under an agreement that found him not guilty by reason of insanity.
Misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon were dismissed under the plea agreement.
Both the state and Keiler’s defense agreed that Keiler suffered from severe mental illness that required his placement in an institution, but differed on how long he should remain there.
Kussel ordered the maximum confinement of 25 years on the hostage-taking charge and another year and a half on the charge of failing to comply with an officer’s attempt to take Keiler into custody.