Jurors have convicted a 45-year-old man of killing a northwest Wisconsin sheriff's deputy who was checking on a suspicious vehicle in a field.

Douglas S. Nitek, 45, of Conrath, Wis., was found guilty Tuesday night of first-degree intentional homicide and other counts after jurors deliberated for six hours.

Sentencing, which could mean life in prison, has yet to be scheduled for Nitek in the October 2016 killing of Rusk County Deputy Dan Glaze. He had been with the Sheriff's Office for 1½ years.

Glaze's wife, Sarah, told WQOW-TV in Eau Claire afterward, "Obviously, we just want justice to be served and for him ideally not to get out, not be able to harm anyone else."

The deputy was fatally shot about 11 p.m. while checking on a vehicle in a field south of Ladysmith on Broken Arrow Road, just east of Hwy. 27. Dispatch lost contact with him, and backup deputies arrived minutes later and discovered that he had been killed with a bolt-action rifle.

Nitek was located late the next morning at a residence after he fired at deputies.

Dan Glaze

Previous to his post in Rusk County, Glaze was with the Hayward Police Department for eight years and at the same time worked for the Sawyer County Sheriff's Office in the jail and handling prisoner transports. His first job after graduating from Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College in Rice Lake was with the Fall Creek (Wis.) Police Department.

Glaze, 33, was known affectionately to his family as Boone. He grew up in the Birchwood area, about 35 miles northwest of Ladysmith. Survivors include three children.

Nitek's criminal history in Wisconsin reaches back to the mid-1990s and includes convictions for sexual assault, theft, fleeing police, disorderly conduct, multiple instances of drunken driving and attempting to pass bad checks.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482