Thirteen years after a Milwaukee-area teenager died on a convenience store floor, two of the men who restrained him have admitted felony murder—with a deal that keeps them out of prison, reports WISN. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laura Crivello accepted a deferred prosecution agreement last week for Robert W. Beringer, 67, and Jesse R. Cole, 39, in the 2012 death of 16-year-old Corey Stingley, reports ProPublica. The men pleaded guilty to felony murder tied to false imprisonment after helping hold Stingley down in a West Allis store during an attempt to stop him from taking about $12 in alcohol. If they stay out of trouble and comply with the agreement for six months—including making $500 donations each to a charity chosen by the Stingley family—the case will be dismissed.
The resolution follows a yearslong push by Corey's father, Craig Stingley, who used a little-known "John Doe" statute in Wisconsin to force a fresh look at a case prosecutors twice declined to charge. Special prosecutor Ismael Ozanne, appointed in 2022, wrote that there was "no doubt" Beringer, Cole, and a third man, Mario Laumann, caused Stingley's death by tackling and restraining him without legal authority to do so. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide from a brain injury caused by asphyxiation after a struggle, and Ozanne concluded that Laumann, who died in 2022, effectively strangled Stingley while holding him in a chokehold.
Instead of a trial, the parties met face to face under the guidance of a retired judge. In a statement, the Stingley family said they sought "not vengeance, but acknowledgement" of Corey's life and the harm done, calling the agreement a model for how people can pursue "understanding and healing" after serious wrongdoing. From the bench, Judge Crivello praised the outcome as fair and said she hoped it would prompt wider consideration of the concept known as restorative justice. "My 13-year struggle," Craig Stingley told the court, "has turned into triumph."