Judge denies Barbeau appeals

A Sheboygan judge has denied two appeals to re-sentence 13-year-old Antonio D. Barbeau, who is serving a life sentence for killing his great grandmother two years ago.

Barbeau was convicted in summer 2013 of first-degree intentional homicide in the murder of his great grandmother, Barbara Olson, whom he and Nathan Paape, who was also 13 at the time, killed by striking her multiple times with a hand axe and hammer in her Sheboygan Falls home. Both boys were tried as adults.

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Barbeau's attorney, Chad Thomas, argued Wednesday in front of Circuit Court Judge Timothy Van Akkeren that it was unconstitutional that Barbeau was sentenced to life imprisonment as a minor and that the sentence did not offer him "a meaningful opportunity for release" before death.

Thomas also argued that Barbeau was mistakenly sentenced as being eligible for parole because the court system is in the process of eliminating the parole board review process.

Van Akkeren found that the mistaken sentence allowing for parole eligibility instead of extended supervision did not constitute a new factor, which is necessary to re-sentence, and instead ordered that the judgment of conviction be amended.

Van Akkeren also ruled that Barbeau's attorney failed to prove that the life sentence penalty was unconstitutional as applied to minors.

Thomas said he plans to take the case to a state Court of Appeals.

Barbeau is currently serving time at Lincoln Hills Juvenile Detention Center. When he turns 17, he will be eligible to be transferred to an adult facility. He will be imprisoned until he is eligible for extended supervision when he turns 50.

— Reach Kali Thiel at 920-453-5134