Request for new sentence denied, Barbeau remains behind bars for life

SHEBOYGAN (WITI) -- He was convicted of killing his great grandmother and sentenced to life in prison with the first possibility of release when he is 50 years old. But on Thursday, November 13th, a Sheboygan County judge denied Antonio Barbeau's request for a new sentence. Barbeau's challenge to the constitutionality of the general penalty provisions of that crime as applied to a minor was also denied.

Barbeau pleaded no contest to the first-degree intentional homicide as a party-to-the-crime of his great grandmother, Barbara Olson, in a hand axe and claw hammer attack in her Sheboygan Falls home on September 17th, 2012.  His friend, 13-year-old Nathan Paape, was found guilty of that same crime as an accomplice after a jury trial. Paape will not be eligible for consideration for release until he is 45 years old.

Judge Timothy Van Akkeren ruled the mistaken sentence allowing for parole eligibility instead of eligibility for extended supervision did not constitute a “new factor” to re-sentence Barbeua and ordered the Judgment of Conviction to be amended accordingly.  The judge also ruled that Barbeau had failed to prove that the life sentence penalty, which requires a minimum 20 years of incarceration before consideration for release, is unconstitutional as applied to minors.