A 50-year-old man in Wisconsin who is already serving two life sentences for killing his girlfriend and her best friend — stabbing them both to death when he “snapped in a jealous rage because he saw them being intimate and felt “humiliated” — is set to stand trial next month for allegedly attacking a correctional officer while incarcerated.
According to court records acquired by Law&Crime, Richard Wendell Sotka is due to stand trial in Green Bay on January 8, 2025, on one count of battery by a prisoner.
Sotka previously made news after being found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in the 2023 deaths of Rhonda Cegelski, his 58-year-old fiancée, and Cegelski’s best friend, Paula O’Connor, 53. Sotka was subsequently sentenced to two consecutive life terms with no prospect of release.
Sotka’s battery trial was scheduled to begin on October 16, 2024, but was pushed again to December 11. However, Sotka’s attorney, Jeff Cano, informed the court last week that his client has been unable to meet with counsel or review information in the case, according to Green Bay Fox affiliate WLUK. Brown County Circuit Court Judge Beau Liegeois then allowed Cano’s request to move the trial date to next month.
According to a copy of the criminal complaint received by the station, Sotka assaulted the correctional officer with a series of closed-fisted hits to the head.
“Sotka screamed something, and that is when Sotka struck me for the first time with a fist,” the victim stated in a statement following the alleged assault. “His fist struck me on the left ear. The impact stung my ear, and I saw stars. I demanded, ‘What are you doing?’ I heard Officer AG request backup on the radio. Sotka continued to attack me with his fist, and we backed away. “It felt like all of the strikes were on my head.”
The victim stated that he never gave Sotka permission to strike him.
“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 attacks from striking me. When Officer AG came, I could feel Sotka’s tension level drop.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, on Jan. 29, 2023, police arrived to Sotka and Cegelski’s duplex after the latter’s daughter discovered the two victims dead inside and contacted 911. Both had been stabbed several times with an 8-inch blade found at the site.
The Green Bay Press Gazette reported that both women had been stabbed many times in the face and neck. O’Conner’s body was near the front entrance of the duplex, with a knife still stuck in her neck. Cegelski’s body was found in the kitchen.
Investigators promptly pursued Sotka, who was dating Cegelski, as a possible suspect in the women’s deaths.
Sotka was out on bond at the time for an unrelated case in Oconto County, Ohio, in which he was accused 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 allegation.
However, Sotka was driving a truck from his work that had its own OnStar GPS tracker, indicating that he was in Arkansas.
Arkansas authorities caught Sotka around ten hours after the victims’ bodies were discovered. According to investigators, he was carrying approximately $4,000 in cash as well as his passport.
According to a criminal complaint, after his detention, Sotka confessed to the double murder, telling detectives that he felt “humiliated” after stepping out of the shower and finding the two women engaging in sexual activity after a night of heavy drinking. He also continually rejected the stalking charges he was facing in a different case.
“He said he asked [Cegelski] where he was supposed to go, and then he said he just lost it. He indicated he couldn’t provide [police] specifics or tell [police] what happened, but he knew he had lost it,” authorities noted. “[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 admitted to officials that he “snapped” on another lady he was seeing around 20 years before the deaths, according to the Gazette. In the incident, he allegedly knocked out the victim’s teeth, shattered her leg, and cracked her head. The victim in that case testified at Sotka’s murder trial.