Convicted Thief Murdered Judge That Sentenced Him To Jail To Seek Revenge

A Wisconsin man who murdered a judge in his house on Friday has been found to be the same convicted thief who was sentenced to nine years in jail by the victim years ago.

Douglas K. Uhde, 56, was identified by the Wisconsin Department of Justice as the man suspected of killing retired Judge John Roemer on Friday, June 3. Roemer had previously sentenced Uhde to six years in prison on a burglary charge in 2005, Law & Crime reported.

On Friday, June 3, Uhde allegedly shot and killed Roemer in the retired judge’s Town of New Lisbon home, about an hour and twenty minutes northwest of Madison.

According to the Department Of Justice, the attack broke into the victim's home at 6:30 a.m. on Friday. Another resident at the address, whose identity remains unclear, was also inside the house at that time, and managed to escape to a neighbor’s house and call for help.

Law enforcement immediately responded to the scene and a standoff ensued between Uhde and the officers. However, attempts at negotiation failed and a tactical team stormed the residence at around 10:17 a.m. Inside the home, they found the judge dead at the scene and Uhde in the basement suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to the officers, Roemer had been “zip-tied to a chair in his home” and “shot dead,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The authorities took Uhde to a hospital where he remains in critical condition.

The law enforcement officers recovered a firearm from the crime scene following the incident. However, they did not say who owned it or what type of gun was used.

Uhde was previously sentenced in Adams County Circuit Court to 10 years in prison and seven years extended supervision in the year 2002 in connection with an August 2001 armed burglary of a township of Quincy home. Uhde was also ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment, have no contact with his victims, and undergo DNA testing.

Even though Uhde entered a no-contest plea, he was found guilty of burglary, carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Roemer, in 2005, sentenced Uhde to six years in prison and nine years of extended supervision.

However, in 2006, Uhde escaped from the Fox Lake Correctional Institution, a minimum-security facility. He reportedly walked away from custody while painting the inside of a house on the Baraboo Circus World Museum grounds. However, he was captured about three weeks later.

He was later released from Stanley Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison, in April 2020.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul suggested that Uhde had a "hit list" and that he apparently wished to target other victims as well.