Man convicted of fatal Arpin shooting may plead for reduced sentence

Lina Portman1 week ago

2 2 minutes read

Robert Schueller, now 73, pleaded no contest to second-degree intentional homicide after fatally shooting Forrest Vruwink, 24, on July 25, 2004, outside the LA Bar and Grill in Arpin.

Kevin Murphy
| For the USA TODAY-Wisconsin NETWORK

MADISON – A former Arpin man sentenced in 2005 to a lengthy prison term for fatally shooting another man outside a tavern will have a chance to prove his sentence should be reduced because of progress in treatment for PTSD, a state appeals court ruled.

According to the 23-page opinion released Thursday:

Robert M. Schueller, now 73, a Vietnam veteran, pleaded no contest to second-degree intentional homicide in the shooting death of Forrest G. Vruwink, 24, on July 25, 2004, in front of the LA Bar and Grill in Arpin.

Portage County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Flugaur, who served as an alternate judge in the Wood County case, sentenced Schueller to 25 years in prison followed by 15 years of extended supervision. Flugaur concluded that because Schueller would still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, considered at the time incurable, he would still pose a danger to the community.

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In 2023, Schueller's attorney Matthew Pinix and Joseph Riepenhoff of Milwaukee asked Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Rick Cveykus, who is serving as an alternate judge in the Wood County case, to convert Schueller's sentence in one extended supervision. Lawyers said that since Schueller's conviction, treatments for veterans suffering from PTSD have been shown to be effective, some at a rate of 92 percent. This constitutes new information and justifies a new sentence.

A defense doctor said the highly effective therapy was not available in the Wisconsin prison system and that Schueller would have to receive the therapy at the VA Medical Center on an outpatient basis.

The state attorney general's office opposed Schueller's release from prison, saying it was not enough that new treatments could reduce or resolve PTSD symptoms linked to anger and violent temper. Instead, the office said the new therapies were irrelevant to the goals of the sentence, which were to protect the community and the seriousness of the offense.

Cveykus agreed with the State and, without holding a hearing, concluded that the determinative reasons for the sentence were “the seriousness of the offense” and the “punishment of the offender”, which have no relation to the availability of new treatments for PTSD.

The District IV Court of Appeal disagreed, concluding that if PTSD in veterans could be treated and even cured on an outpatient basis, it would be “highly relevant to the imposition of Schueller's sentence.”

The District IV court concluded that Schueller could have received a shorter sentence if Flugaur had known that PTSD could be cured with advanced treatments and that Schueller would not remain a perpetual danger to the community.

The appeals court also said the state “misses the mark” by asserting that the effectiveness of treatment is irrelevant to protecting the public and punishing the accused.

Instead, Flugaur based the sentence on Schueller's PTSD, which still makes him a danger to the community, but based on advances in the treatment of PTSD, that assumption is no longer correct, the judge wrote. Appeal Judge Rachel Graham.

Schueller's lawyers and a spokesperson for the attorney general's office were not immediately available for comment Monday.

In sending the case back to Cveykus, the appeals court said it was within its discretion to hold a hearing to determine whether Schueller had proven his claims.

Robert Schueller, now 73, pleaded no contest to second-degree intentional homicide after fatally shooting Forrest Vruwink, 24, on July 25, 2004, outside the LA Bar and Grill in Arpin.

Lina Portman

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