Escapee Gets 44 Years for Killing Fullerton Man, Three Robberies

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — A prison escapee was sentenced Friday to 44 years in state prison for killing a Fullerton man and committing three Santa Rosa robberies.

Michael Allen Wachholtz, 35, of Guerneville was charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances for fatally shooting Jack Lee Brant, 53, during a carjacking in August 1995.

Brant, an electrician working a temporary job near Santa Rosa, was shot four times in the chest and dumped in a remote coastal area. His body was found several months later.

After the slaying, police said, Wachholtz went on a crime spree that included a string of armed robberies in Idaho, where he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison.

Wachholtz escaped from the Idaho prison last November with another inmate and made his way back to Guerneville by stealing a series of trucks. He was arrested a month later.

Wachholtz pleaded guilty in May to voluntary manslaughter with use of a firearm, and to robbing three Santa Rosa stores at gunpoint in 1995. In exchange for the plea,he received 15 years for manslaughter and seven years for both robberies. But under the second-strike rule, each sentence will be doubled. He also must pay $3,300 in restitution to Brant’s family.