Jury Convicts Baraboo Man of Terrorist Threats After Vowing to Shoot Officials and Bomb a School

BARABOO, WI Sauk County District Attorney Michael X. Albrecht announced on Monday September 21st that a Sauk County jury has found Kerry E. Martin, 66, of Baraboo, guilty of 19 counts of making terrorist threats for a series of public Facebook posts threatening to shoot Baraboo officials and bomb a school. Each a Class I felony under Wisconsin law punishable by up to three years and six months in prison. He faces more than 66 years in prison.

The verdict was returned Thursday, September 17, 2026, before Circuit Court Judge Andrew Voigt of Columbia County, who was specially assigned after the entire Sauk County bench recused.

Over three months in early 2025, Martin used a public Facebook page to threaten Baraboo and Sauk County officials. He directed the posts at a Baraboo judge, the police chief and officers, the city’s mayor, and tagged a public police-scanner page so the threats would be seen.

District Attorney Albrecht said “People have every right to be angry with their government. No one has the right to threaten a ‘murder spree,’ a ‘shooting spree,’ or the bombing of a school. Kerry Martin did all three, publicly, for months. This was not just a threat to a judge, a police chief, and a mayor. It was a threat to an entire community, and a jury held him accountable for it,”.

The threats were identified by the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office Court Security division, which alerted every judge in the county and the state court system. The Baraboo Police Department investigated and obtained records from Meta confirming the account was Martin’s. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney C. Remington McConnell. Following the verdict, the State asked the court to revoke Martin’s bond and take him into custody; the court ordered him released pending a presentence investigation and sentencing.