Parole hearing for last of 6 men convicted in mill death

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GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The state Parole Commission will soon review the case of the last of six men who remains in prison for the 1992 murder of a Green Bay paper mill worker.

A parole hearing was held Wednesday for 70-year-old Keith Kutska, one of the six convicted in the death of Tom Monfils, whose body was found at the bottom of a vat filled with pulp at the former James River mill.

Kutska, Dale Basten, Michael Johnson, Michael Piaskowski, Rey Moore and Michael Hirn were convicted after a joint trial and all were sentenced to life in prison, with a variety of parole dates. All six men have maintained their innocence.

A federal judge overturned Piaskowski’s conviction in 2001. The other four were paroled in recent years, leaving just Kutska in prison. State records show he is currently housed at the Jackson Correctional Institution in Black River Falls, WLUK-TV reports.

It was Kutska’s theft of an extension cord, which was reported to the company by Monfils, which triggered the sequence of events that led to the murder, according to prosecutors.

Commission spokesman Oliver Buchino says a parole commissioner will review five requirements including conduct, programming, risk reduction, time served, and release planning. The commissioner will then make a recommendation to the chairman. Buchino says it will be several weeks before a decision will be made on Kutska’s parole.