Sean Couture, the man accused in the shooting death of his grandmother at their Waukesha home in 2024, will not contest the first-degree intentional homicide count he is facing.
Couture, 25, will be sentenced July 29, four days after he entered the no-contest plea in Waukesha County Circuit Court in return for the dismissal of two other charges: failing to comply with an officer’s attempt to take him into custody, a felony, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated, a misdemeanor.
Nancy Lovejoy, 74, was shot six times at her Douglass Avenue home, where Couture also lived, last Aug. 25. According to the criminal complaint filed several days later, Couture and Lovejoy had argued after she found a firearm in his room. The argument escalated before he shot her near a side-entry door — a late-night incident that immediately caught neighbors’ attention.
The incident resulted in an hours-long standoff with Waukesha police, who eventually used drones to locate Lovejoy’s body, which had been dragged to a spot near basement stairs, and spot Couture’s location in the house. He was forced from the house after police used a chemical compound.
Couture was bound over for trial in October 2024 based on the testimony of Waukesha Police Detective Jay Carpenter, who described the violent confrontation in an investigation. A May 12 hearing indicated a plea agreement was in the works.
The July 25 plea hearing proceeded despite the unavailability of a prosecutor from the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office, but it did result in a delay of Couture’s sentencing, according to online court records. He potentially faces a lifetime prison sentence.
Couture remains in custody at the Waukesha County Jail until his sentencing.
Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at james.riccioli@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waukesha man to be sentenced in fatal shooting of his grandmother