Marisela Cuevas of Green Bay said she is no longer the same person she was before July 14, 2023; the day her son was fatally shot by 25-year-old Michael Putala of Ashwaubenon during a car chase near Cass Street.
“I just want to be the person I was before all this happened, but that’s just impossible,” Cuevas told Brown County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Walsh at Putala’s July 23 sentencing. “Whatever happens today, the worst is already done.”
Putala pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide April 18 in the death of Carlos Ponce-Cuevas, 24, of Green Bay. Cuevas called the plea agreement “a joke” and asked Walsh to reject it.
Putala and his defense attorney, Anthony Cotton, have said Putala acted in self-defense, believing his life was at risk during the car chase. Putala and Ponce-Cuevas knew each other and had been in an “ongoing dispute,” according to a criminal complaint.
Michael Putala, 25, of Ashwaubenon, speaks with his defense attorney, Anthony Cotton, during his sentencing hearing in Brown County Circuit Court on July 23. Putala pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide in a fatal July 2023 shooting. He was sentenced to five years in prison followed by seven years of extended supervision.
Even with the complexities of the case and how Putala may have felt in the moment, Walsh said, his actions were reckless and dangerous. A high-speed car chase in a residential area, even if guns weren’t involved, terrifies the community, Walsh said.
“It doesn’t make us think we’re unsafe,” Walsh said. “It makes us unsafe.”
While the law allows for probation in second-degree reckless homicide cases, and requires a judge to consider probation first, Walsh said the case requires an element of punishment. He sentenced Putala to five years in prison followed by seven years of extended supervision.
‘You shattered a whole family’
Carlos Ponce-Cuevas valued his family more than anything, said defense attorney Heather Richmond, who represented Carlos’ family throughout the case. Fidel Ponce, Carlos’ father, said in a statement read by Richmond that his first-born son changed his life and who he was as a person for the better.
“Your actions didn’t just take one life,” Richmond read from Ponce’s statement. “You shattered a whole family.”
Carlos was a mix of sugar and spice, his mother told the court. He had a heart of gold, Cuevas said, but he would “dig those feet in the ground” if someone upset him.
“I just can’t believe my son is not here anymore,” Cuevas said. “I am so upset, I’m so heartbroken.”
No amount of prison time will be able to undo the damage Putala caused, Carlos’ brother told the court.
“It will never come close to the sentence you gave us,” his brother said. “A lifetime of pain.”
Defense recommends probation, citing self-defense claim
On the spectrum of second-degree reckless homicide cases, Cotton said he “can’t think of one that’s more mitigated” than Putala’s. Putala is not hot-headed or violent, Cotton said, “it’s not his character.”
“There’s no evidence that he was ever anything but a passenger in this vehicle put in an awful circumstance,” Cotton said.
The car Putala was in was trying to escape the car Ponce-Cuevas was in, Cotton said. Putala was not the aggressor, he said.
Cotton also pushed back against claims from Ponce-Cuevas’ family that Putala had shown no remorse since the incident. Cotton said he was confident a jury would return a not guilty verdict on Putala’s original first-degree reckless homicide charge, something he said prosecutors agreed with when they decided on a plea deal.
Still, Putala wanted to plead guilty.
“When I hear that there isn’t remorse and there isn’t acceptance or responsibility, I can’t disagree with that more strongly,” Cotton said. “He pled guilty in the face of his lawyer telling him he would win at trial.”
Cotton recommended one year in jail and 10 years of probation.
Deputy district attorney Caleb Saunders said he respects the defense’s viewpoint regarding self-defense, but that Putala’s conduct was still highly reckless. Deciding to fire a gun in a residential area at 5 p.m. on a summer afternoon is “extremely concerning,” he said.
“Human life should be valued more than what was exhibited here,” Saunders said.
Giving Putala probation would depreciate the seriousness of his conduct, Saunders said. The case requires a prison sentence, he said, even taking into account Putala’s “subjective why” behind his actions. Saunders recommended five years in prison followed by 10 years of extended supervision.
Walsh agreed that probation would unduly depreciate the gravity of the case, sentencing Putala to five years of initial confinement.
Vivian Barrett is the public safety reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. You can reach her at vmbarrett@greenbay.gannett.com or (920) 431-8314. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @vivianbarrett_.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Michael Putala of Ashwaubenon sentenced to prison for 2023 shooting