GREEN BAY – In a rare occurrence, defense attorneys for a Michigan man who murdered a Green Bay man he found through a dating app during a three-day, three-state crime spree in 2022 requested a harsher sentence than the prosecutor’s.
Caleb Anderson, 25, killed 65-year-old Patrick Ernst, of Green Bay , in August 2022 before driving to Alabama and killing a second man. Anderson pleaded no contest to first-degree intentional homicide in Brown County in August .
At Anderson’s sentencing hearing Monday afternoon, Brown County Deputy District Attorney Wendy Lemkuil recommended Anderson be sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for release on parole in 60 years. However, Anderson’s attorney, Carrie LaPlant, gave no sentencing argument except that the defense “is in agreement” with the pre-sentence investigation report — which recommended life in prison with no possibility of parole.
Brown County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Walsh accepted the defense’s recommendation. The homicide, he said, was “very, very disturbing and troubling,” and its random nature further emphasized the need to protect the public from Anderson forever.