WAUSAU — A Chicago man was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role in a scam that drained more than $135,000 from an elderly Marathon County woman’s savings.
Marathon County Circuit Judge Mike Moran sentenced Tao Wu, 37, on July 20 to 7 1/2 years for conspiracy to commit theft of movable property exceeding $100,000. The sentence is split between 2 1/2 years in prison and five years of extended supervision. Moran granted Wu credit for 609 days already served and found him eligible for prison programming.
Wisconsin uses what is known as bifurcated sentencing, a structure created under the state’s truth-in-sentencing law. Judges must divide a prison sentence into two parts: an initial confinement term the defendant serves in full, without the possibility of parole, followed by a period of extended supervision in the community. If a person violates the conditions of that supervision, a judge can order them returned to prison…