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Fond du Lac man pleads guilty to grisly shooting death

Posted at 5:09 PM, Aug 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-08-16 18:14:29-04

JUNEAU, Wis. (AP) — A Fond du Lac man has pleaded guilty in a grisly homicide, and prosecutors are seeking life without parole.

Twenty-one-year-old Nigel Schultz pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree intentional homicide. Authorities said Schultz shot 36-year-old Bradlee Gerke of Beaver Dam 16 times in the back of the head and torso and buried him in a shallow grave, which was found last Halloween.

Prosecutors said Schultz killed Gerke because he believed Gerke was going to snitch on him shortly after he got out of prison for a burglary conviction. A warrant was out for Schultz's arrest after he failed to meet with parole officers.

Schultz told acquaintances on a recorded phone call he killed someone, and that shooting someone 16 times "cannot be an accident."

Sentencing is set for Jan. 7.