Prisoner beat cellmate to death after imagining she used her toothbrush to clean the toilet
A woman incarcerated at a Wisconsin prison has been handed a life sentence without the chance of parole for beating her cellmate to death two years ago.
Taylor Sanchez, 29, pleaded no contest last month to killing her cellmate, 68-year-old Cindy Schulz-Juedes, at the Taycheedah Correctional Institution. Judge Tricia Walker called the attack “wholly vicious” as she sentenced Sanchez on Monday, according to Spectrum News.
A no-contest plea indicated Sanchez would not fight the charges, but would not admit fault, either. The Independent has contacted Sanchez’s public defender, Michael Queensland, for comment.
Prison staff found Schulz-Juedes dead in her cell, surrounded by a pool of blood, in July 2023. Sanchez, who was the only other person in the cell, informed police she was “hearing voices” that told her to kill Schulz-Juedes, according to court documents reviewed by Fox 6.
Sanchez later called her mother, explaining that she thought Schulz-Juedes used her toothbrush to clean the toilet, according to a transcript of their conversation.
“I stopped taking my meds and I started hearing voices again,” Sanchez told her mother.
“I thought she was using my toothbrush to scrub the toilet…I thought she was using my stuff to wipe the floor with and I thought she was messing with me,” she continued.
Schulz-Juedes suffered “skull fractures too numerous to count,” according to prosecutors. She also sustained 34 rib fractures, bruises and other injuries.
Sanchez changed her plea on June 30 after originally pleading not guilty due to insanity, Fox 6 reports. She was originally serving a two-year sentence for battery in Kenosha County.
“Every victim matters, regardless of their status or if they are serving a criminal sentence,” Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said in a statement. “This defendant brutally murdered her cellmate and created dangerous risks for other inmates and correctional officers.”
“We will continue to protect our correctional officers and all those within our community, regardless of where they reside,” he continued. “We hope this sentence sends a strong message to inmates that there are consequences for committing crimes in our prisons.”
Schulz-Juedes was convicted in 2021 of being party to first-degree intentional homicide and resisting or obstructing an officer, the Associated Press reports. These charges came in connection with the 2006 fatal shooting of her husband, Kenneth Juedes. She was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole in 2022.
Prosecutors said Schulz-Juedes found her husband dead the morning after he was shot. She told police she was sleeping in a camper outside their home and went inside the house to check on him, thinking he overslept and was late for work.
Prosecutors argued she was motivated by money, citing her husband’s insurance policies that totaled more than $900,000.
