Prosecutors said the fight began when Adam Thompson refused to let Ronnie Fuentez have a friend stay overnight.

WAUKESHA, Wis. — A Waukesha County jury has convicted Ronnie Fuentez in the death of his uncle, Adam Thompson, after prosecutors said the then 17-year-old repeatedly punched Thompson during a Feb. 1, 2025, argument at the apartment they shared on Delafield Street.

The verdict closed the trial phase of a case that started as a battery prosecution and became a felony murder case after Thompson died 16 days after the fight. Jurors found Fuentez guilty of felony murder caused by battery and misdemeanor bail jumping. The case drew attention because the dispute began with a routine house argument over whether a friend could sleep over, then turned into a homicide case once doctors found Thompson had suffered an internal brain bleed.

According to the criminal complaint and later trial reporting, Thompson and Fuentez had lived together for about four years in Waukesha. Investigators said the argument began at about 10 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2025, when Thompson told his nephew that a friend could not stay the night and needed to go home. Thompson later told police that Fuentez became angry and punched him in the head with a closed fist. Thompson said he struck back once in self-defense, then raised his arms to protect his face while Fuentez kept punching him. Thompson also reported that Fuentez shouted insults during the attack and told him, “I’ve wanted to f— you up since the first day I moved in.” After the fight, Thompson said, Fuentez left the apartment and did not return until the next morning.

One of the case’s most important details was the delay between the fight and the medical emergency. Thompson did not call police that night and did not go to a hospital right away because, according to court records, he did not believe he had suffered an immediate serious injury. Two days later, on Feb. 3, he developed a migraine. He said over-the-counter medicine helped for a time, but the pain did not fully go away. On Feb. 5, while speaking with his mother on the phone, Thompson began struggling to finish sentences. His mother thought he might be having a stroke, drove to check on him, and took him to Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Nurses there told him he had an internal brain bleed, and he was admitted to the intensive care unit. A responding officer later recorded that Thompson was awake and able to speak, but could not form complete sentences easily because of the bleeding.

Thompson used that hospital interview to identify Fuentez as the person who attacked him, investigators said. Police wrote that Thompson said his nephew had punched him multiple times in the head. The friend at the center of the original argument was never clearly accounted for in public reporting, and court summaries reviewed after the verdict still left that point unresolved. Public reporting also did not describe in detail what medical treatment Thompson received during the 12 days between his hospital admission and his death. What is clear from the court record and obituary is that Thompson died at Waukesha Memorial Hospital on Feb. 17, 2025, at age 46. His obituary described him as a Waukesha West High School graduate, an avid gamer, a reptile enthusiast and a man who loved his dog, Boy, and family gatherings.

The legal path changed sharply after Thompson’s death. Fuentez was first charged with battery, based on Thompson’s statement to police after the hospital interview. Prosecutors later amended the case to felony murder after Thompson died, arguing that the beating caused the fatal injury. Authorities also added a misdemeanor bail jumping count because they said Fuentez was already out on bond in an unrelated case and was required to obey the law as a condition of release. By June 2025, local coverage described the case as a felony murder prosecution and noted a summer court hearing. The trial itself began on Feb. 17, 2026, exactly one year after Thompson’s death, and a Waukesha County Circuit Court jury returned guilty verdicts on Feb. 19, 2026. By the time of trial, Fuentez was 18.

The facts gave the case an especially harsh emotional frame because it centered on a home shared by family members. Prosecutors presented the fight as a sudden eruption of anger over a house rule. The defense position is not fully reflected in the public summaries now available, but the jury’s verdict shows it rejected any argument that would have spared Fuentez criminal liability for Thompson’s death. Thompson’s own account became a key part of the case because he was able to speak to police from his hospital bed before he died. That gave jurors a direct description of what happened inside the apartment from the man who suffered the injuries. Public accounts of the verdict did not indicate that the case involved a weapon. Instead, the prosecution theory centered on repeated punches to the head, the delayed onset of severe symptoms, the hospital diagnosis, and the death that followed.

The case now moves to sentencing. Court reporting after the verdict said Fuentez is scheduled to be sentenced on April 27. At that hearing, the court is expected to address punishment for the felony murder caused by battery conviction and the bail jumping count. The record available to the public does not answer every question left by the case, including why Thompson initially chose not to seek help or where the visiting friend went after the argument turned violent. But the central sequence is no longer in dispute in court: an argument over a sleepover at a Waukesha apartment led to a beating, a brain bleed, a death, and a jury conviction more than a year later.

Author note: Last updated March 20, 2026.