MERRILL, Wis. (WSAU) – A Lincoln County judge has denied a convicted Tomahawk killer’s request to withdraw his guilty plea and be resentenced.
Judge Glenn Hartley rejected Derek Domke’s motion in a 27-page written decision filed Tuesday. The decision means Domke will continue serving a 45-year prison sentence for robbing and killing Zephyr gas station clerk Rochelle Anderson.
Hartley rejected Domke’s claim that he did not understand the guilty plea he entered to being party to first-degree intentional homicide in October 2008.
“Domke understood the material contained within any questions or information put to him,” Hartley ruled.
The judge also found that a factual basis for the plea existed, in part based on Domke’s own statement that he participated in the robbery.
“He was sentenced…knowing that her death was a natural and probable consequence to an armed robbery involving the use of a knife to restrain an attendant,” Hartley said.
The written decision also finds that Domke’s trial lawyer, Robert Rusch, did everything possible to gather information, explain the law and alternate defenses to Domke. That discussion included the possibility of moving forward on a lesser felony murder charge.
Hartley also upheld the 45-year prison sentence he imposed.
The sentence “was necessary considering the gravity of this offense and the rehabilitation needs of Mr. Domke which could best be conducted in a confined setting,” Hartley concluded.
