Woman convicted of fatal stabbing in Jackson County
Apr. 26—BLACK RIVER FALLS — A rural Black River Falls woman will be sentenced Sept. 15 in connection with the September 2021 fatal stabbing of her live-in boyfriend.
Kellie J. Schmidt, 54, pleaded no contest Wednesday in Jackson County Court to a felony count of first-degree reckless homicide as a crime of domestic violence.
Judge Daniel Diehn ordered a pre-sentence investigation by the state Department of Corrections.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors will seek no more than 20 years in prison for Schmidt.
Diehn is not bound by the agreement and could sentence Schmidt to up to 40 years in prison.
Schmidt was charged in the Sept. 9, 2021, stabbing of 53-year-old Thomas Boettcher.
According to court records:
Authorities responded to a report of a man bleeding profusely on his neighbor's doorstep.
Deputies arrived shortly after 10 p.m. to find Boettcher bleeding from a stab wound in his arm. Boettcher was taken to Black River Memorial Hospital and then flown to Marshfield Medical Center, where he died shortly after arriving.
Responding Jackson County deputies then found Schmidt attempting to hang herself in the unattached garage of their residence before being saved by authorities.
Schmidt later told authorities she did not remember what happened. But in a jail phone call she was overheard saying "he was going to set me on fire and I didn't know what else to do."
Schmidt's nephew told authorities the couple consumed alcohol daily and fought frequently.
The nephew also said Schmidt had previously stabbed an ex-boyfriend, and had once admitted poking Boettcher in the chest with a butcher knife while he slept.
Schmidt had been living with Boettcher for about a month in the Jackson County town of Brockway.
An investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, state Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation, and the State Crime Lab determined that Schmidt stabbed Boettcher with a fillet knife.
