A 49-year-old man in Wisconsin will spend the rest of his life behind bars for killing his girlfriend and her best friend, stabbing them both to death in a jealous rage because he saw them being intimate and “snapped.” A jury in Brown County deliberated for about an hour before finding Richard Wendell Sotka guilty on two counts of first-degree murder with a dangerous weapon in the slayings of Rhonda Cegelski, 58, and Paula O’Connor, 53, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
In addition to the murders, one of which included a domestic abuse modifier, Sotka was also convicted on five counts of jumping bail and one count of criminal damage to property. He is facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Richard Wendell Sotka (Mississippi County, Arkansas Sheriff’s Dept.) and the home where he killed Rhonda Cegelski and Paula O’Connor (WBAY screenshot)
As previously reported by Law&Crime, police on Jan. 29, 2023, responded to the duplex Sotka and Cegelski shared after the latter’s daughter found the two victims dead inside and called 911. Both had been stabbed multiple times with an 8-inch blade recovered from the scene.
According to a report from the Green Bay Press Gazette, both women had been stabbed multiple times in the face and neck. O’Conner’s body was closer to the front door of the duplex with a knife still stuck in her neck. Cegelski’s body was located in the kitchen.
Investigators quickly sought Sotka, who was dating Cegelski, as a person of interest in the women’s murders.
Sotka at the time was out on bond from an unrelated case in Oconto County, Ohio, where he was charged with stalking, harassment, and violating a restraining order and was required to wear a GPS ankle monitor. But Sotka cut the monitoring device from his leg and ditched it along Interstate 41, resulting in the criminal damage to property charge.
However, Sotka was driving a truck from his employer that was equipped with its own OnStar GPS tracker showing he was on the road in Arkansas.
Authorities in Arkansas apprehended Sotka about 10 hours after the victims’ bodies were discovered. He was carrying about $4,000 in cash and had his passport with him, authorities said.
In a criminal complaint, police said that 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 the unrelated case.
“He said he asked [Cegelski] where he was supposed to go and at that point he said he lost it, he just lost it. He said he couldn’t tell [police] details or tell [police] exactly what happened but he knows 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.”
Additionally, Sotka told authorities that he had also “snapped” on a different woman he was dating about 20 years prior to the murders, per the Gazette. In that case, he reportedly knocked out the victim’s teeth, broke her leg, and fractured her skull. The victim in that case also testified during Sotka’s murder trial.
Sotka is currently scheduled to appear in court for his sentencing hearing on May 20. While he is facing a mandatory life sentence, Brown County Circuit Court Judge Beau Liegeois can set a minimum duration when Sotka may be eligible for parole.
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