GREEN BAY – A 24-year-old Green Bay man convicted of aiding his brother in the aftermath of a shooting that killed one man and injured another in February 2023 will spend about 18 months in prison.
On Wednesday afternoon, Brown County Circuit Court Judge John Zakowski sentenced Jose Hernandez to three years in prison followed by two years of extended supervision for harboring or aiding a felon, a Class G felony, to which Hernandez pleaded no contest in June.
Jose Hernandez will serve about half that sentence in prison, because he has credit for the approximately 18 months he already spent in Brown County Jail while awaiting conviction and sentencing.
Jose and his brother, 26-year-old Omar Hernandez, also of Green Bay, were charged and convicted in connection with killing Edgar Rodriguez-Hernandez, 27, of Green Bay, and injuring Edgar’s then-24-year-old brother during a fight in the early morning hours of Feb. 11, 2023, on the 900 block of Clayton Place in Green Bay.
Omar Hernandez pleaded no contest in June to one count of first-degree reckless homicide as party to a crime and one count of first-degree reckless injury. He also appeared in court Wednesday afternoon, but his sentencing was rescheduled to 1 p.m. Sept. 26 because his attorney was out sick.
At Jose’s sentencing hearing, the man who was injured in the shooting provided a victim impact statement about how his life has changed following his injuries and the loss of his brother.
“I still have a bullet inside my body, and I haven’t been the same since then,” he said, through a Spanish-to-English translator.
The man showed Zakowski scars on his body and explained surgeons were unable to remove a bullet near his heart, which impacts his physical mobility.
“They know very well what they did,” the man said about the Hernandez brothers.
While the criminal complaint contained conflicting information from witnesses about whether it was Omar, Jose or both brothers who fired the gun during the fight, attorneys at Wednesday’s sentencing said Omar was the only one to use the gun.
According to a criminal complaint, around 3:30 a.m. Feb. 11, 2023, neighbors living near the 900 block of Clayton Place awoke to loud arguing followed by gunshots and called police.
When police arrived, they found two men with gunshot wounds. Edgar Rodriguez-Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene, while his brother was taken to a hospital and treated for multiple wounds to his torso.
Attorneys said the fight involved two groups of people and was planned over text following an altercation earlier in the night at the bar Mi Pueblo, located at 1905 N. Irwin Ave.
In his sentencing argument, Jose Hernandez’s defense attorney, Michael Balskus, provided details about the fight and Jose’s role in it. He claimed the original fight at the bar was between two people, neither of whom were Omar or Jose.
However, Balskus said, Omar had a concealed carry permit and kept a gun in his vehicle. Once the larger fight broke out on the 900 block of Clayton Place, Jose attempted to hide Omar’s gun so no one would use it, he said.
But Balskus said Rodriguez-Hernandez struck Jose with a bottle and knocked him out, and Omar retrieved his gun and fatally shot Rodriguez-Hernandez in the head. According to the complaint, Omar told police he also shot Rodriguez-Hernandez’s brother, who “tried to hit him and take his gun away.”
That series of events, Balskus argued, matched the description one neighbor gave to investigators about what they witnessed out their window — that one man fell over like he had been hit, then moments later there was a single gunshot, and after about 20 seconds, four or five more gunshots, followed by everyone getting into their vehicles and leaving the scene.
Balskus argued that Jose had no part in the shooting and did not even find out that anyone had been killed or injured until later the following morning, because he had been knocked unconscious.
“Jose Hernandez should never have been charged,” Balskus said.
Both Jose and Omar Hernandez were initially charged with first-degree intentional homicide, the most serious crime in Wisconsin, but took plea deals, pleading to lesser offenses in June.
Balskus also told Zakowski that Jose has been working since he dropped out of school as a teenager to support his mother, and said a prison sentence could do more harm to him and his family than good to the community. Balskus requested a sentence of just one year in jail, for which Jose had already served.
“Let him get back to his job, to his family, to supporting them, and to getting his GED,” Balskus said.
For the prosecution’s sentencing recommendation, Brown County Deputy District Attorney Caleb Saunders requested Jose be given the maximum penalty for a Class G felony — five years of initial confinement followed by five years of extended supervision.
Saunders said Jose was “an active participant” in the fight and in trying to help his brother cover up the homicide. He said text messages between the two brothers discussed hiding the gun.
Both brothers were arrested during a traffic stop in the afternoon following the shooting. Investigators located Omar’s gun disassembled and hidden in a bag of rice at the apartment the brothers shared with their mother, according to the complaint. Omar told police he had hidden the gun in the bag of rice after returning home from the fight.
“I’m not naive, I understand that they’re brothers. There’s a bond there that’s extremely strong,” Saunders said at Jose’s sentencing, but added “it’s unfortunate” Jose Hernandez did not go to authorities to explain what happened.
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Zakowski said he did not think it was fair to give Jose the maximum sentence, but agreed that he needs to face some prison time for his role in the crime.
“Omar is the person that shot him, there’s no question about it … but it’s what happened afterward, Jose … that’s what you’re being convicted of,” Zakowski said.
At one point slamming his hand on his desk, Zakowski passionately told the courtroom how “stupid” decisions led to tragic consequences.
“I’m just going to get this off my chest. Does anybody realize how stupid this was?” he asked.
“The fact is, this thing never should have happened. … Every one of these kids is probably a good person. They’re just dumb.”
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay man sentenced to prison for aiding brother after shooting
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