19-year-old prisoner at Green Bay Correctional Institution was strangled in homicide, autopsy shows

GREEN BAY – A 19-year-old prisoner at Green Bay Correctional Institution who died Tuesday was strangled by his cellmate, officials say.

An autopsy by the Brown County medical examiner determined Micah Laureano, of Waukesha, "died of strangulation/suffocation by manner of homicide," the Brown County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday afternoon.

The Brown County Sheriff's Office is investigating the homicide. While the sheriff's office on Wednesday identified the person who shared a cell with Laureano, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin does not identify people as suspects in crimes for which they have not been charged.

Formal charges are expected to be filed late next week, the sheriff's office announced Thursday.

Thursday's statement from the sheriff's office also stated that Laureano and the prisoner suspected of killing him "had occupied the same cell for only hours before the incident."

Laureano died around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night, Wisconsin Department of Corrections spokeswoman Beth Hardtke confirmed Wednesday.

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He had been incarcerated at the Green Bay area prison since April and was serving a three-year sentence for concurrent cases in Waukesha County and Columbia County involving robbery and battery, according to public records.

Laureano's death is the most recent in a string of deaths in the state's prisons. In the last 14 months, six prisoners died at Waupun Correctional Institution , and one guard died after an assault by a teen at Lincoln Hills School for Boys .

Green Bay Correctional Institution restored regular movement at the end of July after a lockdown lasting over a year. According to the DOC, the lockdown was implemented due to understaffing.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com . Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli .

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: 19-year-old prisoner at Green Bay Correctional Institution was strangled in homicide, autopsy shows