Milwaukee man sentenced to 23 years in prison for his role in 2021 Kaukauna homicide
APPLETON – A Milwaukee man will spend the next two decades in prison for the 2021 homicide of a Kaukauna man, an Outagamie County judge decided Monday.
Dontae Payne, 29, pleaded no contest in November to one count of second-degree intentional homicide as party to a crime, for the murder of Brian Porsche, 37. A second charge of armed robbery as party to a crime was dismissed as part of a plea deal.
A no contest plea means Payne accepted a guilty verdict without admitting or denying any guilt.
Payne and his then girlfriend, Tanya Stammer, killed and robbed Porsche after Stammer was let into his house under the guise of a sexual encounter on March 30, 2021, authorities say.
Payne was previously charged with first-degree intentional homicide, to which he had entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
What was Payne's exact sentence?
Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Yadira Rein sentenced Payne to 23 years in prison followed by 20 years of extended supervision.
Stammer, 32, was given an identical sentence to Payne in October.
Payne owes $40,000 in restitution. As conditions of his extended supervision, Payne will also be required to undergo mental health and substances abuse assessments and follow treatment recommendations. He will also be unable to own or possess a firearm.
Payne has been at Outagamie County Jail since April 5, 2021, so he already has more than three years credit going toward his prison time.
What happened?
According to the criminal complaint:
On March 30, 2021, Stammer's friend drove Stammer and Payne to Porsche's home in the 100 block of West Division Street. The vehicle parked at a gas station across the street, and Stammer exited the vehicle and walked to Porsche's house around 7:24 p.m., surveillance video showed. Less than two minutes later, Payne left the vehicle and walked into the residence.
Both Payne and Stammer left the house less than 10 minutes later. Stammer's friend driving the vehicle told police that Payne came back to the vehicle holding a gun, and Stammer carried $500 in cash, some change and a set of keys. On a drive to Oshkosh, they stopped at a park to throw Porsche's phone and keys in Lake Winnebago. Investigators later recovered the phone from the water near Asylum Point Park in Oshkosh and were able to extract information from it.
The woman drove Payne and Stammer to Milwaukee, dropped them off at a Department of Motor Vehicles office and, after speaking with her father on the phone, decided to leave them there.
Porsche's brother called police around 3:30 p.m. the next day after finding Porsche dead at his house. An autopsy determined he died of a single gunshot wound to his head.
Investigators found a gun in the backseat of the woman's vehicle, partially covered by clothing or a blanket, the complaint says. The imprints on a chambered cartridge in the gun matched the shell casing found at the scene.
Stammer initially told police she shot Porsche, but later said Payne pulled the trigger. Payne told investigators he fired the gun.
In a Facebook exchange between from before the shooting, Stammer referred to the couple as a modern day Bonnie and Clyde.
RELATED: Two charged with homicide, armed robbery after man found shot to death in Kaukauna home
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: Milwaukee man gets 23 years in prison for 2021 Kaukauna homicide
