A 50-year-old Wisconsin man who is already serving two life sentences for killing his girlfriend and her best friend — stabbing both to death when he “snapped” in a jealous rage because he saw them being intimate and felt “humiliated” — has been convicted of attacking a prison guard while incarcerated.
Following a one-day trial, a Brown County jury convicted Richard Sotka of one count of felony battery by a prisoner on Wednesday. Following the verdict, County Circuit Court Judge Beau Liegois increased Sotka’s sentence by three years to serve consecutively with his dual life sentences without parole.
Sotka previously made headlines for his conviction on two counts of first-degree murder with a dangerous weapon in the 2023 deaths of Rhonda Cegelski, his 58-year-old girlfriend, and Cegelski’s best friend, Paula O’Connor, 53.
According to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by local Fox affiliate WLUK, Sotka assaulted the correctional officer with a series of close-fisted strikes to the head after he removed contraband from Sotka’s cell.
“Sotka screamed something, and that is when Sotka struck me for the first time with a fist,” the victim said in a statement following the alleged assault. “His fist struck me on the left ear. The strike hurt my ear, and I saw stars. I demanded, ‘What are you doing?’ I heard Officer AG request backup on the radio. Sotka continued to strike me with his fist, and we backed away. “It felt like all of the strikes were on my head.”
The victim claimed he had difficulty deflecting Sotka’s blows.
“At one point I went into a defensive position as he kept hitting me,” according to the victim. “I was finally able to extend my arms and prevent his strikes from hitting me. When Officer AG arrived, I could feel Sotka’s tension level drop.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, on Jan. 29, 2023, police responded to Sotka and Cegelski’s duplex after the latter’s daughter discovered the two victims dead inside and called 911. Both had been stabbed multiple times with an 8-inch blade found at the scene.
The Green Bay Press Gazette reported that both women had been stabbed multiple times in the face and neck. O’Connor’s body was near the front door of the duplex, with a knife still stuck in her neck. Cegelski’s body was found in the kitchen.
Investigators quickly sought Sotka, who was dating Cegelski, as a possible suspect in the women’s murders.
Sotka was out on bond at the time for an unrelated case in Oconto County, Ohio, in which he was charged with stalking, harassment, and violating a restraining order and ordered to wear a GPS ankle monitor. However, Sotka severed the monitoring device from his leg and discarded it along Interstate 41, resulting in a criminal damage to property charge.
Arkansas authorities apprehended Sotka about ten hours after the victims’ bodies were discovered. According to authorities, he was carrying approximately $4,000 in cash as well as his passport.
According to a criminal complaint, after his arrest, Sotka confessed to the double murder, telling investigators that he felt “humiliated” after getting out of the shower and seeing the two women engaging in sexual activity after a night of heavy drinking. He also repeatedly denied the stalking charges he was facing in an unrelated case.
“He said he asked [Cegelski] where he was supposed to go, and then he said he just lost it. He said he couldn’t give [police] specifics or tell [police] what happened, but he knew he completely lost it,” authorities wrote. “[Sotka] stated, ‘I’m guilty of killing these girls but I’m not guilty of what they said I did in Oconto County.”
Sotka also told authorities that he had “snapped” on a different woman he was dating about 20 years before the murders, according to the Gazette. In that incident, he allegedly knocked out the victim’s teeth, broke her leg, and fractured her skull. The victim in that case testified at Sotka’s murder trial.
