OCONTO – A Gillett man was charged Wednesday with attempted first-degree homicide and three other charges over an incident Sunday morning in the town of Oconto Falls.
Joey J. VandeWettering, 59, is being held on $150,000 cash bond, which was set at his initial appearance before Judge Jay Conley in Oconto County Circuit Court.
According to the criminal complaint, the victim told a deputy he had gone to the address on Konitzer Road to retrieve some property the day after he’d been released from jail.
The man said he was in the process of removing tires from a custom-made trike when VandeWettering came outside a three-pronged spear with a wooden shaft. He said he got back into his truck, but VandeWettering hit the windshield with the spear, breaking it, then shoved the spear through the driver’s side window.
The strike nearly missed him and impaled the pickup’s seat, and he started to drive away when VandeWettering fired a shotgun at him.
The man said one BB struck him above the eye; others hit the side of the truck.
Deputies were called to the scene and used the sheriff’s office MRAP – a military mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle – to clear the way and protect themselves as they moved toward the residence, as numerous campers, vehicles, buses, outbuildings and an unknown number of people were on the property.
VandeWettering was taken into custody after leaving the house, located about 2 miles southeast of Oconto Falls.
While he was being taken to a hospital to be medically cleared, VandeWettering told a deputy the man had attacked him with a lead pipe and the man had tried to run him over with a vehicle.
VandeWettering said the incident began because the man had damaged one his motorcycles in the yard. He also said he threw the spear at the man because he had been attacked, and would wait while armed with a firearm for the man to leave the courthouse one day so he could kill him.
VandeWettering said he didn’t understand why he was arrested for being attacked. A sheriff's deputy said VandeWettering became agitated and threatened to shoot squad cars in the future and said he should have pointed a gun at arriving deputies in hopes of being shot by them.
Besides attempted first-degree intentional homicide using a dangerous weapon, he was also charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety using a dangerous weapon, threaten a law enforcement officer and battery. They carry maximum sentences of 65 years, 17½ years, six years and nine months, respectively.
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Contact Kent Tempus at (920) 431-8226 or ktempus@gannett.com.