Murder trial in Sheila Laudon death paused after courtroom dispute

The first day of Michael Ingold’s murder trial stopped short after a closed-door dispute in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court, pushing jurors out of the courtroom and delaying the case until April 10.

Judge William Kussel Jr. sent the jury home after attorneys met in his chambers on April 8. In plain terms, the pause meant the trial could not keep moving while the court sorted out the argument, and the judge said he did not want jurors sitting idle during that process. The exact legal issue was not disclosed publicly, but the interruption immediately affected the trial calendar and put the next stage of the case on hold.

The case centers on the June 25, 2022 death of Sheila Laudon, who was 59 when she died. Before the dispute erupted, Shawano-Menominee County District Attorney Greg Parker had already delivered the state’s opening statement. Prosecutors say Laudon did not die from drinking and health complications, as Michael Ingold had claimed, but was strangled. An autopsy found she had been strangled to death, and the injuries were consistent with manual strangulation.

The criminal complaint says the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department received Ingold’s 911 call at 4:13 a.m. that morning. Court reporting says Ingold told deputies he had come home around 6:30 p.m., fell asleep on the couch and later found Laudon dead. Investigators believed Ingold and Laudon had previous run-ins, and the charge carries a domestic-abuse modifier, adding to the scrutiny around the prosecution in Shawano County and Menominee County.

The pause also highlighted how Wisconsin’s victim-rights protections shape a homicide trial. Those rights are written into Article I, section 9m of the state constitution, and state law says crime victims and witnesses must be treated with dignity, respect, courtesy and sensitivity. Kussel said he had to balance those protections with Ingold’s due-process rights before the jury could keep hearing the case.

The court was expected to take up documents and more argument on April 9 before the trial resumed April 10. Later reporting said the defense opening statement on April 10 was expected to lead into a trial that could run through April 30, with the defense planning to lean on medical experts, neighbors, Laudon’s medical records and the autopsy evidence in seeking acquittal.