Tim Ryan, tryan@shawanoleader.com
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Travis W. Keiler, left, appears in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court on Tuesday beside his attorney, Steven Weerts, for sentencing on charges related to a standoff and hostage-taking incident in Wittenberg in April.
A Gillett man who took a hostage during a standoff with sheriff’s deputies in Wittenberg in April was committed Tuesday to a mental institution.
Travis W. Keiler, 29, was ordered confined for 26 1/2 years, though he will have the right to petition for a conditional release as soon as six months and can try again every six months after that.
Keiler had entered a plea of no contest last month 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.
Keiler was arrested April 22 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.
Nearby Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District elementary and high schools went into lockdown for about 45 minutes as a precaution.
Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney Greg Parker during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing praised employees at the business for their courageous handling of the situation.
Judge William Kussel Jr. added that the employees showed a level-headedness that probably kept a bad situation from ending in tragedy.
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.
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.
Defense attorney Steven Weerts described Keiler as normally “a very gentle person” who had no previous criminal record.
According to a witness account that Parker read in court, Keiler initially tried to take one of the McDonald’s customers as a hostage rather than Kujawa, telling Kujawa he could go because “you look like you’ve had a bad day.”
Keiler also said at one point that it was “not my intention to harm anyone.”
Weerts said the April 22 incident was the result of increasing delusions and paranoia that stemmed from Keiler’s mental illness.
Parker said his concern was that Keiler was already taking medication to deal with those problems and stopped.
That was also Kussel’s concern in passing sentence. He said Keiler’s confinement needed to be substantial to allow for treatment and issued an order that Keiler must take his medication.
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.
If Keiler successfully petitions for an early release into the community, he will be monitored by Wisconsin Probation and Parole and the Department of Health Services and could face recommitment if there are any problems.