Joseph Slater
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A Wausau man will serve prison time for firearms-related charges in connection with a 2023 shooting incident near the M and R Station.
Joseph Slater will serve five years in prison and five years on extended supervision as part of a plea deal announced on Monday. The sentence comes after the 45-year-old entered a no contest plea to felony charges for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and receiving a stolen firearm.
Slater was part of an argument outside the bar in the fall of 2023. When police arrived to break up the skirmish, they saw him holding a gun and ordered him to drop it. The group scattered, and police reported a single shot from the area.
Investigators later recovered two firearms from the scene, one of which had been reported stolen from the Green Bay area.
Slater previously pleaded not guilty to the charges. The case had been scheduled for trial in January, but Monday’s deal wipes that from the calendar.
In exchange for the no contest plea, charges for recklessly endangering safety and carrying a firearm into an establishment that serves alcohol were dismissed, but read into the record. Slater was given credit for more than 2.5 years already served in jail while awaiting trial, meaning he will be eligible for release in late 2028.
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