Owen Backus appears via Zoom from the Brown County Jail, Feb. 13, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A preliminary hearing will be March 7 held for the suspect in a west-side murder.
Owen Backus, 45, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the Dec. 9 murder of Michael Hubbard, 30, at a Western Avenue home.
Backus appeared briefly in court Tuesday for the scheduling conference. If convicted, he faces a mandatory life in prison sentence. A judge would decide if or when Backus would be eligible to ask for parole.
According to the criminal complaint, Backus returned home and found Hubbard in the residence. Backus and Hubbard argued about Hubbard rearranging the house, taking things off the walls, and painting. Backus took a shower, and while there, he was attacked by Hubbard with a wrench, and the two began to fight. Hubbard was hit in the head with a glass pitcher, hog-tied, then choked with a cable.
“Backus indicated his actions were in self-defense, he did not want to kill anyone, and he was protecting his home,” the complaint states.
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