Man gets in 37 years for attacking salon worker

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — A judge has sentenced a Kenosha man convicted of attacking a Milwaukee salon worker to more than three decades in prison.

Judge Frederick Rosa sentenced 45-year-old Jose Dancel to 37 years in prison and 18 years on extended supervision on Friday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Dancel will serve the sentence after he completes a current 15-year sentence for a Kenosha child sexual assault.

A jury found Dancel guilty in April of attempted homicide, reckless injury and endangering safety in connection with the 2014 attack on 24-year-old Ashley Cartagena.

The woman was sitting in her car waiting to begin work at D’Matrixx Salon when Dancel inexplicably opened fire on her. She suffered two dozen gunshot wounds. She has undergone 10 surgeries and has lost most of the use of her right arm.

She wept in court Friday as she described her life since the shooting. She said she can’t even do her own hair, much less others’, and feels humiliated that her parents have to help her bathe. She worries that if she has children she won’t be able to lift them

“I feel ruined, like damaged goods,” she said. “I was a secure, confident woman before this. … I did everything I was supposed to do. And now I’m back to trying to figure it out, and I don’t know where to begin.”

Dancel’s attorney, Anthony Cotton, argued that the case against his client doesn’t make any sense. Cartagena and neighbors of the salon identified Dancel as the shooter, but when police located him days later they didn’t immediately arrest him and he didn’t leave the area, instead cooperating with investigators. Cellphone records show he was in Michigan days before the shooting, when the neighbors said they had seen him and his truck parked outside their house. Detectives couldn’t link Cartagena to Dancel in any way.

“Either he’s innocent, or if he’s guilty the only explanation is he had some kind of psychotic break,” Cotton said.