SHEBOYGAN, WI -- A convicted killer's employment at the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department is raising some eyebrows.
The sheriff says he's keeping the employee around, even after some gruesome details were unveiled.
The Sheriff says, had the details been made public in the first six months of his employment, Rafael George Macias would likely have been let go.
At this point he's been there well over ten years, and has been a big asset.
Since 2001, deputies have relied on the skills of Macias.
He was first hired by an outside agency to fix radios in marked and unmarked squad cars.
"He was a stellar employee, dependable, he did his work," says Sheriff Todd Priebe, "he was always willing to help out other people."
That's why, when Sheboygan County's contract with that agency ended in 2011, they hired Macias directly.
"We just hired the one, and George made the perfect sense," says Priebe. "We knew him. We trusted him."
The Sheriff's Department knew about Macias' 1977 murder in Texas, but the gruesome details just came out.
A jealous Macias strangled his girlfriend, then cut her in two with a hacksaw.
On the streets of Sheboygan, mixed reaction about whether the sheriff's department should keep a killer.
"I know a lot of people that gotten to good places after having done really bad crimes themselves," says Jamie Baranski, of Sheboygan.
But Sheriff Priebe thinks Macias has been rehabilitated.
"And after you got over the first initial 'really? not Goerge!' I would think many of them would come to the same conclusion," says Priebe.
Macias has told the Sheriff he's a different man today, and that in times when he felt unworthy, his Catholic faith helped.
"But there's no reason to suspect that people cannot be recipients of God's forgiveness, of God's love, of God's mercy," says Pastor Philip Reifenberg, of St. Dominic's Parish, in Sheboygan.
Pope Francis has pronounced this as the Jubillee year of mercy, saying God is merciful.
