Family of 2-time fugitive Jonathan Pogreba asks judge for no mercy at sentencing

Jonathan Pogreba

WAUKESHA COUNTY -- New details emerged ahead of a sentencing hearing scheduled for Friday, July 26 for Jonathan Pogreba, who ran from authorities, prompting two manhunts. In victim impact statements filed Tuesday, July 23, we learned how his family has lived in fear for their lives.

In spring, Pogreba reached a plea deal in three separate cases filed against him. He was convicted of battery (domestic abuse, use of a dangerous weapon) and burglary of a building or dwelling in a case filed out of Waukesha County June 6, 2018, criminal trespassing to a dwelling out of Trempealeau County filed on Nov. 28, 2018, and felony bail jumping out of Waukesha County filed on Nov. 30, 2018. He was ordered to pay a fine in the Trempealeau County case.

Pogreba's family said they want no mercy when the judge chooses his punishment -- saying they lived in fear of him, writing, "We were trapped in our own home."

Prosecutors said Pogreba prompted a weeks-long manhunt in the Town of Eagle in summer 2018 after his family described him beating his wife and threatening her with a gun before his son intervened, shooting toward Pogreba, who ran off.

Jonathan Pogreba

In a statement to the judge, the daughter wrote, "We all believed my father had a plan to greatly harm and even kill our mother that day."

One of the kids said the son had "pulled a gun out four times on my father to protect us."

Jonathan Pogreba

Pogreba later turned himself in at the Waukesha County Courthouse after 16 days off the grid -- but soon ran again. Court records showed Pogreba skipped a court hearing in Waukesha County in November 2018 after he was released on $150,000 bond in the domestic violence case in late October. Prosecutors said he cut off his GPS monitoring device he was required to wear after the domestic incident in Eagle. He was eventually spotted hiding in a hotel in Mukwonago, where he was arrested.

Jonathan Pogreba

One letter to the judge read, "Jon Progreba is a narcissistic sociopath who only cares for himself. He is a danger not only to us, but to society, and the public."

"A victim impact statement can be very impactful on a sentencing hearing," said Jamie Pagac with Kim & LaVoy Law Firm.

Pagac said these types of statements about a defendant are weighed when a judge decides his fate.

"It is the pretty much the only time the victim does speak to the court if there's not a trial where they testify, so it is a very important piece of the puzzle," said Pagac.

"With Jon in jail, this has brought them all some peace, but the ghost of that day, the day that Jon shot at looms over them all," one victim impact statement said.

Sentencing was scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Friday in Waukesha County.