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• Star Prairie man pleads in abuse case
• Roberts man in critical condition after surviving Friday night crash

A Star Prairie man will be sentenced next month in the death of his 13-week-old daughter.

Joshua Alan Schaak, 22, pleaded no contest to one count of second-degree reckless homicide during a hearing last Wednesday (Jan. 16) in St. Croix County Circuit Court.

He was found guilty, and the court set a sentencing hearing for March 27 at 3 p.m.

Schaak, who has been held in jail on a $200,000 cash bail, was charged in connection with the death of his daughter, London, who died at Children's Hospital in St. Paul Dec. 4.

The criminal complaint said a Ramsey County, Minn., medical examiner ruled the cause of death as child abuse.

An autopsy revealed bruises to the face and neck, evidence of hemorrhages in the head and healing rib fractures.

Schaak admitted to sheriff's investigators that he became frustrated, shook the baby forcefully and hit her head against a wall. Emergency personnel were called to Schaak's residence Dec. 2 to attend to a child who had stopped breathing.

London was taken to the New Richmond hospital, then transferred to Children's Hospital. She died two days later after being taken off life support.

Sheriff Dennis Hillstead said Schaak was the primary and only caregiver for the child. The mother, Jessica L. Sherwood, 20, dropped the child off with Schaak in November after a DNA test proved he was the father.

Several unresolved misdemeanor charges against Schaak -- including criminal damage, disorderly conduct, bail jumping and possession of drug paraphernalia from two cases in 2003 and disorderly conduct and bail jumping charges from a 2004 case -- were dismissed Jan. 17.

On Monday morning, Regions Hospital officials reported that Ryan N. Peterson, 29, Roberts, is in critical condition after surviving an accident late Friday night that took the life of another Roberts man.

The accident occurred sometime before 10 p.m. when a pickup truck driven by Peterson rolled over.

Brian D. O'Keefe, 1031 100th Avenue, was ejected from the truck and was later pronounced dead at the Baldwin Area Medical Center.

Peterson was airlifted to Regions Hospital from a parking lot at the nearby Spring Valley High School about 10:15 p.m., about 30 minutes after the crash was reported.

Spring Valley Ambulance personnel transported O'Keefe to the Baldwin hospital.

Sgt. Tom Gunderson of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, stated in a news release, that authorities learned of the crash at 9:44 p.m.

The pair were driving southbound on 290th Street at 790th Avenue in the town of Gilman when Peterson apparently lost control, entered the west ditch and overturned. Both men were ejected in the crash.

The accident occured about two miles southwest of the Spring Valley village limits. Temperatures at the time of the crash were hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit.

Ambulance, fire and police personnel from Spring Valley responded to the crash, along with two ambulances from Ellsworth.

The crash remains under investigation, Gunderson noted.