By Jennifer Eisenbart
editor
A motion hearing has been set for Feb. 18 in Walworth County Circuit Court for a 23-year-old man accused of killing a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student athlete in August.
Chad T. Richards was in court for a status conference Jan. 23, where Judge Estee Scholtz went over the facts that discovery is still being reviewed.
She then set the motion hearing.
Richards is charged with first degree intention homicide with use of a dangerous weapon modifiers in the shooting death of Kara Welsh Aug. 30, 2024.
Since the criminal complaint was filed and initial bail and bond hearing was held Sept. 3, Richards has remained in Walworth County Jail on a $1 million cash bond.
According to the criminal complaint, City of Whitewater police were dispatched to a West Whitewater Street apartment Aug. 30 just prior to midnight, when Richards called 911 and said a woman was dying.
Officers entered the building and allegedly found Richards in the hall on the phone, “crying hysterically.” While he was escorted out of the building, police entered the apartment and found the victim on the floor in a pool of blood with gunshot wounds to her neck, shoulder, wrist and leg. She was not breathing and didn’t have a pulse.
Another officer found multiple holes in the door to the bedroom, consistent with someone striking it, and a black handgun on the floor of the living room along with spent casings.
After Richards was read his Miranda rights, he spoke with a City of Whitewater detective at the police department. Richards allegedly told police Welsh was his girlfriend and the two had gotten into an argument at her apartment.
Richards allegedly told the detective he didn’t remember what the argument was about, but he had gotten angry enough to punch the door. He said while the couple was in the bedroom, Welsh grabbed Richards’ handgun, and he wrestled it away from her.
He also told police that he shot her because “he feared for his life.”
Richards then called his father – and then called 911.
An autopsy of Welsh through the Walworth County Medical Examiner’s Office showed that she had been shot eight times, including wounds to her neck, wrist, abdomen, thighs and lower back.
After obtaining a search warrant, police went back to the apartment and recovered 11 spent shell casings. Another detective is on record saying, based on his training and experience, the injuries to Welsh and the evidence at the scene were consistent with some of the shots occurring while the shooter was standing over the victim lying in the fetal position on the floor.
Welsh, from Plainfield, Illinois, was majoring in management at UW-Whitewater’s College of Business and Economics.
In 2023, she won an NCAA Division 3 title on the vault, and was a consistent contributor in that event and floor exercise for the Warhawks.
