WISCONSIN RAPIDS – A 41-year-old man was sentenced in Wood County Circuit Court on Dec. 15 to 25 years in prison for his role in a high-speed chase and shootout with police on Aug. 20, 2024, in southeast Wood County.
On Sept. 30, Clinton H. Mayotte of Wisconsin Rapids entered a plea to attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Marathon County Judge Scott Corbett, who served as a bench judge in the Wood County case, gave Mayotte 10 years of extended supervision after sentencing him to 25 years in prison.
“This individual is extremely dangerous and the public needs to be protected so this doesn’t happen again,” Corbett said.
Mayotte pleaded no contest to Portage County charges of attempted first-degree homicide and fleeing an officer on Oct. 2. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 9 on the Portage County charges.
Mayotte made no statement during the Dec. 15 sentencing.
According to the criminal complaint, in the early morning hours of Aug. 20, 2024, a Wisconsin Rapids woman reported Mayotte was acting paranoid and she believed he was trying to break into her house. She said she was frightened by Mayotte’s performance. Mayotte hit the woman in the forehead with his cellphone. Mayotte told the woman to shut her mouth, put his hand over her mouth and briefly held her down, the complaint states.
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On December 15, Wood County District Attorney Jonathan Barnett stated that he has heard and believes that early intervention in domestic violence cases is the most effective way to prevent homicides. He said Mayotte was out of control.
The woman said Mayotte left her car. The vehicle was then involved in a chase that began at a traffic stop in Portage County, the complaint states.
On August 20, 2024 at 1:09 a.m., a Portage County Sheriff’s Deputy reported that he was pursuing a vehicle west on State 54, approaching the Wood County border. The vehicle was traveling at approximately 100 miles per hour and fired at a Portage County police vehicle, the complaint states. A Wood County deputy joins a Portage County deputy on a chase on Riverview Highway in Wisconsin Rapids. A Grand Rapids police car also joined the chase.
Mayotte led police on a chase through Wisconsin Rapids until officers stopped him with spike strips. He then climbed onto the roof of a home in Wisconsin Rapids and continued shooting at police.
“There were people in that house,” Barnett said. “Police had to use armored vehicles to rescue them.”
The standoff ended when police shot Mayotte.
Mayotte’s lawyer, Laura Frederico, said Mayotte’s actions were likely an attempt to commit suicide with the help of police.
Frederico said Mayotte had a chaotic childhood and moved 51 times by the time he was 16. He was a victim of child abuse. Frederico said he took care of his sisters and tried to protect them.
When Mayotte was released from prison, he spent 10 years rebuilding his life, Frederico said. He worked for a construction company and eventually started his own business, building homes, she said.
Frederico said Mayotte Barnett, 41, would already be an old man if Corbett sentenced him to the 20 years in prison he was seeking. She asked that he go to prison for 10 years.
Corbett said an on-site investigation showed the Mayotte operation was $60,000 in arrears. He said the Mayotte mother of four, with seven children, owed $60,000 in child support.
Corbett said Mayotte has a long history of criminalization and many opportunities for rehabilitation.
Corbett said Mayotte would not cease operations on the night of August 20, 2024, until police stopped him, which they did.
Corbett credited Mayotte, who had served 482 days. He ordered him to have no contact with the victim, undergo domestic violence counseling and any counseling deemed necessary, and pay $5,688 in restitution for damage to the police vehicle.
Please contact Karen Madden at kmadden@usatodayco.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Wisconsin Rapids man sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempted homicide in shootout
