Judge condemns “monstrous conduct” as survivors detail trauma from 2024 attacks.
MILWAUKEE, Wis. — A Milwaukee County judge on Tuesday sentenced 17-year-old Tremonte Kirk to 35 years in prison for a violent elevator assault and related crimes, calling his behavior “monstrous” during an emotional hearing at the county courthouse where two women gave statements.
Kirk’s case drew uncommon attention because of his age, the brutality described in court and a record of earlier sex offenses in juvenile court. Prosecutors labeled him a serial rapist and said DNA tied him to another attempted assault weeks before the elevator attack. Kirk pleaded guilty in September to two counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of aggravated battery, with two other counts dismissed but read in. The sentence includes 20 additional years of extended supervision after prison, meaning he will be under state control for decades.
The case centers on a December 2024 attack near North 24th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. Investigators said Kirk followed a woman into the elevator of her apartment building, choked and raped her, and then stomped on a recent surgical incision on her leg. In court Tuesday, the woman identified herself as Charlotte Nozar and told the judge that “nothing can give me my life as I knew it and my leg back.” Kirk spoke briefly, apologizing and calling his own actions “evil and selfish.” Judge David Borowski said from the bench that Kirk’s record was “horrible” and told him, “You engaged in monstrous conduct.”
Prosecutors also described a separate incident from October 2024, saying a 23-year-old woman living in her car escaped a similar assault in the same area near the Ambassador Hotel. A later DNA hit linked Kirk to that attack, they told the court. Assistant District Attorney Samuel Tufford asked for 49 years in prison, just under the maximum for the charges. Borowski credited Kirk for pleading guilty and sparing the women a trial but said the crimes were depraved and targeted vulnerable victims. Court records note Kirk was on GPS monitoring at the time of both incidents.
Tuesday’s hearing outlined a longer pattern. Records show Kirk’s contact with the justice system began at 12, when he was adjudicated in juvenile court for groping two people. In 2021, he was adjudicated again after the rape of a 75-year-old woman during a home invasion. He served time at Lincoln Hills, the state’s youth prison, and was released last year. The judge said the system failed by allowing repeated reoffending, while acknowledging that prior interventions did not prevent the December assault. The courtroom grew still as the judge read phrases survivors used to describe the attacks: “tortured, terrorized, brutalized.”
The legal outcome arrived quickly after Kirk’s plea in September. With two counts dismissed and read in, the court used the conduct to inform punishment without additional trials. The 35-year prison term will be followed by 20 years of extended supervision, along with standard conditions set by the Department of Corrections. Prosecutors said they would not bring a separate case for the October incident because the judge considered it at sentencing. Kirk’s earliest release would come when he is well into middle age, the judge said from the bench.
Outside the courtroom, Nozar declined interviews but allowed her prepared remarks to be read into the record, saying on “good days” the thoughts are fleeting, and on “bad days” the memory plays “on a continual loop.” Another woman told the court she “had to run” and that “trauma is not measured by how quickly a victim could get over it.” As deputies led Kirk away, family members of the women held each other in the gallery. No one applauded. There was only a long, quiet pause before the judge left the bench.
The case is now closed at the trial-court level following Tuesday’s sentencing, and Kirk remains in county custody pending transfer to state prison. The next procedural milestones are routine processing by the Department of Corrections and docketing of the written judgment in circuit court records in the coming days.
Author note: Last updated November 12, 2025.