Prisoner who attacked Black prisoners due to race guilty of hate crime homicide at Green Bay prison
GREEN BAY – A jury found a 40-year-old man guilty of a hate crime homicide in the 2022 murder of 25-year-old Timothy Nabors Jr. at Green Bay Correctional Institution.
Joshua Scolman was also convicted of attempting to kill a second prisoner, Lamonte Washington, 26, with a dangerous weapon and as a hate crime.
The jury returned to the courtroom from deliberations in less than 15 minutes.
Scolman's trial started Monday. A second phase of the trial, to determine if Scolman is criminally responsible for the homicide and attempted homicide, will begin Wednesday. He has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Among the evidence presented Tuesday was a letter Scolman wrote in December 2023, filled with racial slurs against Black people and antisemitic language. In the letter, Scolman said he did not know Nabors or Washington and simply chose to attack them that morning because they were Black.
An investigator with the Brown County Sheriff’s Office read Scolman's letter aloud in its entirety. Scolman wrote the letter to another prisoner at Wisconsin Secure Program Facility, where he was moved to following the homicide, after the other prisoner said he overheard them discussing Scolman's attack at the prison in Allouez.
Around 6:30 a.m. Oct. 21, 2022, while prisoners were let out of their cells for medication distribution, Scolman stabbed Nabors with a handmade knife, then chased Washington from the first tier of cells to the first floor of Green Bay Correctional Institution’s South Cell Tower.
Correctional officers subdued Scolman with pepper spray. Shortly after, they realized Nabors had collapsed on the second floor, with a stab wound to his chest.
Nabors was transported to HSHS St. Vincent Hospital, where he was pronounced brain dead six days later.
The prosecution finished presenting witnesses before lunch. Scolman’s defense attorneys, Brianna Zawata and Britteny Koenig, did not call any witnesses. Scolman elected not to testify.
In the defense’s closing argument, Koenig reminded the jury to carefully consider the evidence and find Scolman not guilty if they have any reasonable doubt.
Saunders said there is no reason to have any doubt of Scolman’s guilt – not only was there video security footage backing up the testimony of numerous prison staff about the events of that morning, but Scolman also explicitly described his own motivations in the letter.
“You can’t look into someone’s mind to see what they’re thinking. But luckily, the defendant in this case told you,” Saunders said.
What other evidence was presented Tuesday?
Besides the letter, evidence presented by the prosecution’s witnesses included the following:
The knife Scolman used, which contained multiple carvings, including a swastika, was shown to the jury. Investigators testified they believed it was fashioned from a prison bed frame, with a handle made of rubber and shoe strings.
Surveillance video showing Scolman interact with Nabors and Washington. It showed Scolman chase Washington down the stairs, before correctional officers subdued them. It also depicted, from a far-off angle, Nabors collapsing and prison staff attending to his injuries.
The medical examiner who conducted Nabors’ autopsy testified that Nabors died of complications from a stab wound to his chest, which impacted his heart’s ability to pump blood to the rest of his body.
An investigator from the Brown County Sheriff’s Office said when he spoke with Scolman after he attacked Nabors and Washington, Scolman appeared calm and was “kind of smirking.”
What comes next?
The jury must determine if Scolman is criminally responsible for the homicide and attempted homicide, or if he is not criminally responsible due to mental disease or defect. The difference can determine if Scolman is sentenced to prison or a treatment center.
The jury will return to the courtroom at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday to hear testimony from more witnesses.
Both homicide counts Scolman was convicted of carry a maximum of life in prison with no possibility of parole. Additionally, under Wisconsin law, a felony charge with a hate crime modifier increases the maximum prison sentence by up to five years and the maximum fine by up to $5,000. Wisconsin defines a hate crime as a crime someone commits against another person "in whole or in part because of the actor's belief or perception regarding the race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin or ancestry of that person."
Scolman is already serving a 51-year prison sentence for a 2006 drunken driving crash in Milwaukee that killed three people and seriously injured a fourth person. According to court records, after the crash Scolman pointed a gun at and fired shots toward a motorist bystander.
Nabors was serving a nine-year prison sentence after he was convicted earlier in 2022 of second-degree sexual assault of a child younger than 16.
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: Prisoner who attacked Black prisoners due to race guilty of hate crime homicide at Green Bay prison
