By Lynn Binnie
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@lauramasbruch
The trial of a former UW-Whitewater wrestler who was in a relationship with UW-W gymnast Kara Welsh when she was killed on August 30, 2024 has been postponed for a second time, per online records. The trial of Chad Richards, now age 24, was originally scheduled for December 2025. Last summer a judge pushed the trial back to June 9, 2026, but last week the trial was pushed back again. The trial is now scheduled to begin on November 30. Circuit Court Judge Estee Scholtz has reserved up to eleven days for selection of a 12-person jury and trial. Richards continues to be held in the Walworth County jail under a $1 million cash bond.
At the status conference on May 29, 2026, defense attorney Joshua Hargrove made a record “as to the volume of discovery and believes it to be about 1500 pages printed and that the other report is nearly 3x that size.”
The original Banner story identifying Richards as the defendant in the first-degree intentional homicide case may be viewed here. A criminal complaint alleges he shot Welsh, 21, eight times. Richards allegedly claimed to police that Welsh grabbed the gun first and he took it away from her, then shot her because he feared for his life. Richards called 911 after the shooting. If convicted he would likely serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
