GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – A young man convicted with three others as party to killing a Green Bay Preble High School student over marijuana vaping cartridges will continue serving his 26-year sentence.
Colton Kehoe, now 25, pleaded no-contest to being party to the death of Federico Abarca in 2019. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and 8 years of extended supervision.
Kehoe appealed the court’s acceptance of his no-contest plea.
In a decision handed down on Wednesday, the 3rd District Court of Appeals upheld the Brown County Circuit Court ruling, rejecting Kehoe’s arguments of ineffective counsel, new evidence, and that he couldn’t knowledgeably enter a plea agreement because of his ADHD.
The appellate court said Kehoe’s argument that his attorney should’ve argued self-defense ignored the fact that the lawyer did investigate Kehoe’s self-defense claim.
The lawyer determined even though DNA on the victim’s knife corroborated that there was a struggle, all of the defendants were accused of plotting in advance to rob the victim. The attorney said he explained to Kehoe how that would play to a jury if he went to trial.
On the ADHD claim, the Brown County judge found Kehoe understood everything on the plea questionnaire, “including the words, concepts and meanings with his lawyer prior to taking the plea.” There was no evidence Kehoe didn’t have the mental capacity to understand the consequences.
The appeals court refused to consider an additional claim that testing after Kehoe’s conviction found DNA of a defendant under the victim’s fingernails. Kehoe argued that further corroborates self-defense, but the judge says he raised that claim too late in the appeals process.
Copyright 2026 WBAY. All rights reserved.
