wisconsin | My Crime Library

Alexander Kraus Teen Killer Murders Grandparents

Alexander Kraus was a seventeen year old Teen Killer from Wisconsin that would fatally shoot his Grandparents. According to court documents Alexander Kraus planned for sometime the murders of his Grandparents as police officers found a notebook filled with notes on how he was going to get away with the murders and plans he had for his high school.

Police say that Alexander Kraus, who did not live with his Grandparents, would shoot and kill the pair with a long gun. A welfare check at the home the next day would reveal the two bodies. Alexander Kraus would be found guilty of the double murder but his mental health has come into questions as the court are seeking a mental health evaluation before sentencing will be passed. In the end Alexander Kraus was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for forty years

Alexander Kraus 2023 Information

Alexander Kraus was sentenced to life in prison

Alexander Kraus More News

The two people found dead Sunday at a home on West Edgewood Drive were the grandparents of the 17-year-old boy accused of killing them.

Dennis L. Kraus, 74, and Letha G. Kraus, 73, were found by police responding to a welfare check at the home shortly after 11:30 a.m., the Grand Chute Police Department said Monday afternoon. Alexander M. Kraus, 17, was arrested at the scene.

The two victims were shot to death with a long gun at the home in Grand Chute where Alexander Kraus was arrested, Travis Waas, a spokesman for the Grand Chute Police Department, told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

Kraus wasn’t living with his grandparents at the time, but was only visiting, Waas said. Waas wouldn’t discuss exactly what investigators have learned from Kraus since his arrest, but indicated more details would be released when he appears in court.

Kraus is being held at the Outagamie County Jail on two counts of first-degree intentional homicide. He was expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Kraus had also planned to “cause harm” at Neenah High School, authorities said Monday.

An email sent to Neenah High School parents from the Neenah Joint School District confirmed that Grand Chute police had learned of the potential threat as part of the investigation of the two deaths, said Jim Strick, Neenah Joint School District communications manager.

“The student is in custody in Outagamie County and police believe there is no danger to students and staff at Neenah High School,” the email said. “The school day on Monday will proceed as planned. Additional counselors will be available to assist students.”

Kraus was a junior at Neenah High School. The Neenah Police Department wasn’t aware of the threat to the school prior to the investigation in Grand Chute and hadn’t had contact with Kraus in the past, Neenah Police Chief Aaron Olson said Monday.

https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2019/04/15/boy-held-grand-chute-homicides-planned-cause-harm-neenah-high/3471263002/

Alexander Kraus Other News

A jury ruled Thursday that Alexander Kraus is criminally responsible for the murders of his grandparents.

Kraus, 19, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide for shooting Dennis and Letha Kraus on April 14, 2019, at their Grand Chute home, but also entered a plea of not guilty by reason or mental disease or defect.

This week, a jury had to decide if Kraus suffered from a mental disease at the time of the crime, and if, as a result, he lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions or to conform to the law.

Although the panel ruled Kraus indeed had a mental disease, the panel found he still had the capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions.

Kraus now faces two life prison terms, with Judge Mitchell Metropulos deciding if Kraus will be eligible for parole and, if so, when. Sentencing was set for Aug. 16.

Earlier Thursday, the jury asked about the scenario it ultimately returned with, asking if it answered “Yes” to Question 1, but “no” to Question 2, would Kraus still go to jail. The jury was referred back to the jury instruction for direction.

Unlike the guilt or innocence phase of a criminal trial, the defense had the burden of proof in the competency phase of the case. The trial started Monday. Jury deliberations started Wednesday afternoon, and continued for about five hours Thursday.

According to the criminal complaint, Kraus admitted to shooting his grandparents but a motive was not disclosed. During the investigation, police found “several pages containing Alexander’s typed out plans for killing his grandparents,” the complaint states

https://fox11online.com/news/local/jury-deliberating-in-kraus-murder-case

Alexander Kraus Sentencing

A Neenah teenager who shot and killed his grandparents at their home in Grand Chute in 2019 will serve at least 40 years of a life sentence.

Alexander M. Kraus, now 20, showed little emotion in court Friday as Outagamie County Judge Mitchell Metropulos sentenced him to life in prison and ordered that he serve at least 40 years, minus the 3½ years he’s already been in custody, before he can petition for supervised release.

“Obviously, the severity of the offense is significant,” Metropulos said, “as horrible of a crime as we have. Mr. Kraus killed his grandparents, and he killed both, one right after the other, and it was without mercy, and it was with intent, and it was well planned out.”

Kraus previously pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of Dennis Kraus, 74, and Letha Kraus, 73.

“I loved my grandparents,” Kraus told the court before sentencing. “I’m so sorry.”

The mandatory penalty for first-degree intentional homicide in Wisconsin is life in prison, but Metropulos was empowered to decide when Kraus would be eligible for supervised release.

He set that at 20 years for each count and that the periods run consecutively for a total of 40 years.

Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis recommended that Kraus be sentenced to life in prison without release. She said the killing of his grandparents was part of Kraus’ larger plan — developed over 18 months — to carry out mass murder at Neenah High School. Kraus was a junior at the school.

“I do not believe the community is or will be safe with the defendant in it,” Tempelis told the court. “I also believe significant punishment for the horrific murder of two wonderful people in our community is not only appropriate but is expected.”

“In light of this investigation,” Tempelis continued, “I believe the murders of Dennis and Letha Kraus saved the lives of countless students at Neenah High School.”

Gregory Petit, an attorney for Kraus, requested eligibility for supervised release after 20 years, which is the minimum under law. He said Kraus’ plan for a mass shooting at Neenah High School “was so delusional, there was no way that would have happened.”

“This wasn’t a case of an evil person,” Petit said. “It was a kid with mental health issues that did something horrible.

During a June 2021 trial, Kraus tried to convince a jury that a mental illness kept him from being able to understand what he did was wrong, but he wasn’t successful.

Kraus had been awaiting sentencing ever since because, two months after the trial, Metropulos determined Kraus wasn’t competent to proceed to sentencing and ordered him to get treatment until his competency was restored.

After three separate evaluations, Metropulos ruled in June that Kraus was competent to proceed.

Kraus was 17 when he called 911 shortly after 11:30 a.m. April 14, 2019, telling an emergency dispatcher “he had just killed his grandparents and needed to be arrested by the police,” according to a criminal complaint filed two days later in Outagamie County.

That same day, police found the bodies of Dennis and Letha Kraus at their home on Edgewood Drive in Grand Chute. A police officer who searched the victims’ home found a backpack with a folder inside that contained Kraus’ typed plan for killing his grandparents.

https://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/crime/2022/09/02/neenah-teen-who-fatally-shot-grandparents-sentenced-life-prison/7960872001/

Frequently Asked Questions

Alexander Kraus Now

Alexander Kraus is currently undergoing a mental health assessment before he is sentenced

Christopher Scarver The Man Who Murdered Jeffrey Dahmer

Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most notorious serial killers in United States history and when he was murdered in prison by Christopher Scarver many believed that prison justice was served. Now the next question became who is Christopher Scarver and why would he murder Jeffrey Dahmer.

According to court documents Jeffrey Dahmer was attacked and beaten to death with a piece of weight lifting equipment by Christopher Scarver on November 28, 1994 and along with the murder of Dahmer he would also beat to death another prisoner named Jesse Anderson who was serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife.

At the time of the murders Christopher Scarver was serving a life sentence for the murder of Steve Lohman which took place in 1990 at the Wisconsin Conservation Corps training program. Apparently Christopher Scarver demanded money and when Steve Lohman gave him $15 dollars Scarver reacted by fatally shooting him in the head.

Now back to the Jeffrey Dahmer and Jesse Anderson murders. According to Christopher Scarver Jeffrey Dahmer was despised by the other inmates and not just for the cannibalistic murders that he committed while he was out in the free world but his behavior when the serial killer was finally locked up. Jeffrey Dahmer liked to pour ketchup on food that he shaped to look like limbs from a body which he would then hide so other inmates and staff could find them. Jeffrey had to be escorted around the prison by staff as he had made a large number of enemies. The day that he was murdered Jeffrey Dahmer did not have a guard escort when he, Jesse Anderson and Christopher Scarver were tasked by staff to clean a washroom. Scarver would take his opportunity and murder Jeffrey Dahmer and soon after murder Jesse Anderson who was apparently friendly with Dahmer.

Christopher Scarver believes that staff at the prison set up the scene in hopes that Scarver would react however that is just speculation. What we do know is that Scarver received two more life sentences for the murders of Jeffrey Dahmer and Jesse Anderson.

Christopher Scarver 2022 Information

Christopher Scarver is not in the Wisconsin Department Of Corrections

Christopher Scarver More News

Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was done in by his uncontrollable lust for human flesh, the man who whacked him in prison 20 years ago told The Post, revealing for the first time why the cannibal had to die.

Christopher Scarver — who fatally beat the serial killer and another inmate in 1994 — said he grew to despise Dahmer because he would fashion severed limbs out of prison food to taunt the other inmates.

He’d drizzle on packets of ketchup as blood.

It was very unnerving.

“He would put them in places where people would be,” Scarver, 45, recalled in a low, gravelly voice.

“He crossed the line with some people — prisoners, prison staff. Some people who are in prison are repentant — but he was not one of them.”

Scarver, who arrived at Wisconsin’s Columbia Correctional Institution around the same time as Dahmer in 1992, knew right away to keep a safe distance from the serial killer.

Scarver said the madman had a personal escort of at least one guard at all times when he was out of his cell because of his friction with other inmates.

“I saw heated interactions between [Dahmer] and other prisoners from time to time,” Scarver said, adding that he didn’t think much of Dahmer.

“There was no impression,” he said.

Like a lone wolf, Scarver watched Dahmer from afar on the prison yard, but never approached him, because he did not want to become a target of his sickening humor.

“I never interacted with him,” he said.

But that all changed on the morning of Nov. 28, 1994, when Scarver doled out his vigilante justice in a gymnasium of the Portage, Wis., prison.

Dahmer, 34, Scarver and a third inmate, Jesse Anderson, were led unshackled to clean the bathrooms by correction officers, who left them unattended.

Scarver, who was repulsed by the youth-molesting cannibal’s lust for flesh, kept in his pocket a newspaper article detailing how Dahmer killed, dismembered — and in some cases ate — 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991.

Scarver, then a 25-year-old convicted murderer, had just retrieved his mop and was filling a bucket with water when someone poked him in the back.

“I turned around, and [Dahmer] and Jesse were kind of laughing under their breath,” Scarver recounted. “I looked right into their eyes, and I couldn’t tell which had done it.”

The three men then split up, and Scarver followed Dahmer toward a staff locker room.

Scarver grabbed a metal bar from the weight room and confronted Dahmer with the news story he had been carrying in his pocket.

I asked him if he did those things ’cause I was fiercely disgusted. He was shocked. Yes, he was,” Scarver said.

“He started looking for the door pretty quick. I blocked him,” Scarver said.

With two swings of the bar, Scarver crushed Dahmer’s skull.

“He ended up dead. I put his head down,” he said.

He then casually crossed the gym and entered a locker room where Anderson, 37, was working.

“He stopped for a second and looked around. He was looking to see if any officials were there. There were none. Pretty much the same thing [happened] — got his head put out,” Scarver said of Anderson, who was serving a life term for killing his wife in 1992.

Scarver believes it was no accident that he ended up alone with Dahmer — since prison officials knew he hated the madman and they wanted him dead.

“They had something to do with what took place. Yes,” said Scarver, noting that the guards disappeared just before he clobbered Dahmer with the 20-inch, 5-pound metal bar.

But Scarver refused to elaborate out of fear for his own safety.

“I would need a good attorney to ensure there would not be any retaliation by Wisconsin officials or to get me out of any type of retaliatory position they would put me in,” Scarver said.

Wisconsin Correction Department spokeswoman Joy Staab did not return calls for comment about those claims — but an investigation following the killings determined he acted alone.

Scarver initially pleaded insanity to the murders but later changed it to “no contest” in exchange for a transfer to a federal penitentiary.

He was sentenced to two life terms on top of the life sentence he was already serving.

Scarver was locked up for killing his former boss during a robbery in 1990.

After getting fired from a job-training program at the Wisconsin Conservation Corps, Scarver started drinking heavily and said he heard voices that called him “the chosen one.”

He returned to his former workplace with a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and demanded cash from site manager John Feyen. When he gave only $15, Scarver put a bullet in the head of a
worker, Steven Lohman.

He shot Lohman two more times before Feyen knocked the gun out of his hands and ran off.

Hours later, cops arrested Scarver sitting on the stoop of his girlfriend’s apartment building.

After the killings, Scarver bounced from prison to prison until he landed at his current home: Centennial Correctional Facility in Canon City, Colo.

Christopher Scarver says he has been evaluated by 10 to 20 prison doctors but still doesn’t understand his mental issues.

He partly blames prison food for his insanity.

“I found out in my own research what the problem is: Certain foods I eat cause me to have a psychotic break — bread, refined sugar,” he said. “Those are the main culprits.”

He now spends his days writing poems for his site. He also has self-published poetry books for sale on Amazon.

Why I killed Jeffrey Dahmer…Christopher Scarver Speaks!

Christopher Scarver Photos

Chandler Halderson Guilty Of Parents Brutal Murder

Chandler Halderson has been found guilty in the brutal murders of his parents. According to court documents Chandler Halderson was telling his parents a host of lies including working at Space X, attending college and volunteering for an elite scuba rescue team. When Chandler Halderson parents realized their son was telling a spiderweb of lies an arguments would break out that would end with their murders. Police believe that Chandler Halderson would fatally shoot his parents before chopping up their bodies and scattering the body parts around Wisconsin. Chandler Halderson is awaiting sentencing where he will be sentenced to life in prison without parole for the double murder.

Chandler Halderson More News

Dane County jury found Chandler Halderson guilty Thursday of the murder and dismemberment of his parents last summer.

After deliberating just over two hours, the jury found 23-year-old Halderson guilty of killing, cutting up and hiding the remains of Bart and Krista Halderson, as well as lying to law enforcement when he initially claimed his parents were missing after they left the Windsor house the family shared for a Fourth of July weekend trip in northern Wisconsin and never returned.

Chandler showed no apparent reaction when the verdicts were read, convicting him of two counts each of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse and falsifying information about a missing person.

A first-degree intentional homicide conviction carries a mandatory life sentence. Attorneys will be able to argue whether Chandler can ever be eligible for parole at a sentencing hearing scheduled in March.

“I hope that it brings some satisfaction,” Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, who did not prosecute the case, told reporters after the verdicts. “We know that we cannot bring Bart and Krista back, but this is the first step to hopefully some finality.”

After prosecutors spent a week and a half arguing the case, which has drawn national media attention, the defense rested Thursday morning without calling any witnesses or Chandler testifying.

In a closing statement, Assistant District Attorney Andrea Raymond walked jurors through events from July 1, when Chandler is said to have killed Bart, 50, and Krista, 53, through his arrest on July 8.

She reminded jurors of evidence and testimony seen throughout the trial, such as human bone fragments found in the family’s fireplace, cutting tools with DNA matching Bart and Krista’s, phone location data showing Chandler near where his parents’ remains were later found, and neighbors’ security cameras capturing what vehicles came and went from the house during that time.

“We know that Bart and Krista went into that home and never came out, at least as whole people,” Raymond said

She compared solving a criminal case to putting together a puzzle, contending Chandler “had eight days to spread pieces of that puzzle all over Wisconsin, at least southern Wisconsin.”

“They were normal folks just trying to live a normal life. They don’t even get to be buried next to each other,” Raymond said. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m asking that you give justice to Krista and Bart Halderson and that you treat them with the dignity and respect that their own son hasn’t given them.”

Defense attorney Crystal Vera urged the jurors to consider what they don’t know with regard to the two first-degree intentional homicide charges, but she seemingly conceded Chandler was guilty of other charges.

“Do you know if it was an awful accident, do you know if it was intentional, do you know if there was someone else involved?” Vera asked the jurors. “You don’t, and that’s a problem.”

She admitted Chandler is a liar and even “goes to extreme lengths, if you will, to keep those lies going or to perhaps cover up those lies.”

But Vera argued the prosecution’s focus on Chandler’s lies about attending Madison Area Technical College, working for American Family Insurance or being part of a scuba dive team for Madison police — regardless of how much of the truth was known to his parents — was more about tainting his credibility if he testified rather than a reasonable motive.

“You were never told that they were going to kick him out of the house. You were never told that they were going to disown him. You were never told anything about why it matters,” Vera said. “If this is going to be motive, if this is the reason you’re intentionally killing someone, it better matter.”

In a rebuttal, Deputy District Attorney William Brown said: “He had two options: Own up to his lies, stand up and finally tell the truth for once. Or like a coward, shoot your father in the back, and that’s exactly what happened.”

The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office was unable to determine the precise cause of death for Krista, whose only remains found were her legs. Ozanne said Chandler’s motive may never become clear.

“The one thing that our traditional criminal justice system never really may get to is the why,” he said. “It may not. We cannot reach into somebody and figure out the why unless they’re willing to somehow give that information to us. We may never know.”

Chandler reported his parents missing to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office on July 7, claiming they left for a trip to the family cabin in Langlade County with an unknown couple and hadn’t returned. Law enforcement quickly saw that story fall apart and arrested Chandler the following day.

In reality, prosecutors say, Chandler killed them after his father began catching on to his claims of attending MATC, and he spent the following days first trying to burn Bart and Krista in the fireplace before disposing of body parts at various locations.

Hours before Chandler’s arrest, investigators discovered Bart’s gunshot torso in a rural Cottage Grove property. It wasn’t until July 14 — nearly two weeks after the murders were believed to have happened — that Krista’s remains were found on state land in northwestern Dane County.

Given the scope of the investigation, which required searching multiple locations and involved several agencies, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said it came down to “time and resources” to put together the case, which he called “historical.

He credited the “professionalism and outstanding work” of the Sheriff’s Office detectives, deputies and staff in the first high-profile murder of Barrett’s tenure.

Despite a weeklong pause in the trial because Chandler tested positive for COVID-19 in the Dane County Jail, it concluded more than a week earlier than originally scheduled.

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime-and-courts/chandler-halderson-found-guilty-in-the-murder-of-his-parents/article_5672740b-535b-5e4d-8311-30a1634e2d99.html

Chandler Halderson Videos

Darrell Brooks Arrested In Wisconsin Massacre

Darrell Brooks has been arrested for the massacre in Wisconsin that has left five people dead and 49 injured. According to Waukesha Wisconsin police Darrell Brooks was driving the red SUV that plowed into crowds of people gathered at a Santa Clause parade. Darrell Brooks who was bailed out of jail after trying to run over his girlfriend and child earlier in November. Right now no motive is known for the senseless attack though some are pointing at the recent Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal. Among the many questions being asked today is why this violent felon was even allowed to post bail. Needless to say this is a breaking story.

Darrell Brooks Waukesha Timeline

4:00 pm – Waukesha Christmas parade begins

4:38 pm – A red SUV is observed traveling at a high rate of speed being chased by police cars

The red SUV barely misses a little girl dancing in the road
The red SUV strikes a marching band leaving several injured
The red SUV strikes several girls carrying pompoms
The red SUV leaves the area chased by police, gunshots are fired

Darrell Brooks More News

Police confirmed that five people were killed and 48 were injured, including two children in critical condition, when a 39-year-old man driving a maroon SUV plowed into a crowd at a parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

The suspect, Darrell Brooks, will be charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide and other offenses, according to police chief Dan Thompson.

Moments before the tragedy, Brooks was involved in a domestic violence incident that he was fleeing. Authorities said that it is “not a terrorist event.”

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/wisconsin-waukesha-suv-plows-crowd-christmas-parade

Darrell Brooks Other News

Milwaukee prosecutors are conducting an internal review into their own office’s decision to make an “inappropriately low” bail recommendation for Darrell Brooks Jr., the man suspected of plowing an SUV through a crowd in nearby Waukesha during a Christmas parade.

The horror left at least five people dead and 48 injured – including 18 children rushed to Children’s Wisconsin hospital in Milwaukee. Waukesha Police Chief Dan Thompson said during an afternoon news conference that prosecutors plan to bring five counts of first-degree intentional homicide and additional charges.

Brooks has multiple pending cases in Milwaukee County – including a 2020 case involving two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a spokesperson for Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm. Bail was originally set at $10,000 and later reduced to $7,500, the district attorney’s office said

But due to a court scheduling conflict that would have deprived Brooks of his right to a speedy trial his bail was again reduced, this time to just $500, which he posted on Feb. 21, 2021, according to prosecutors.

Earlier this month, Milwaukee authorities charged Brooks with another reckless endangering out, felony bail jumping, battery, obstructing an officer and disorderly conduct. He allegedly ran a woman over with what may have been the same SUV that wreaked havoc on the Christmas parade. He was released on $1,000 cash bail on Nov. 11.

“The State’s bail recommendation in this case was inappropriately low in light of the nature of the recent charges and the pending charges against Mr. Brooks,” Chisholm’s office said Monday. “The bail recommendation in this case is not consistent with the approach of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office toward matters involving violent crime, nor was it consistent with the risk assessment of the defendant prior to setting of bail.”

The DA’s office said an internal review of the bail recommendation decision is underway.

In a recent case, a woman told police that Brooks charged into her hotel room, shouted profanity at her, and took her cellphone before driving away. He allegedly circled back later, found her walking to a nearby gas station and punched her after she refused to get into his car. When she started to walk away, he allegedly ran her over with his vehicle.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/waukesha-christmas-horror-milwaukee-darrell-brooks-bail-review

Darrell Brooks Videos

Anissa Weier And Morgan Geyser The Slenderman Stabbing

Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser were two twelve year old girls from Wisconsin who decided the only way to please the so called Slenderman was to murder their twelve year old friend. Slenderman who was created as an online contest was a mysterious figure who lived in the woods. Anissa Weier (picture on the right) and Morgan Geyser would invite their twelve year old friend over for a sleepover and the plan was to murder the girl that night however that plan soon changed.

The next morning the three twelve year old girls were out in the woods when Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser would stab their friend over a dozen times then would leave her fighting for her life. The victim was able to crawl out to a hospital where a passing jogger would find her and call 911 for help. The victim would name both Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser as the two people responsible for the brutal attack.

Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser would soon be arrested and they would freely admit to stabbing the victim in order to please Slender Man in the hopes that he would accept them into his magical kingdom. This case would drag out in the court system until eventually both girls would be acquitted of murder due to reason of insanity. Anissa Weier would be ordered to a mental health hospital for as many as twenty five years to life or until a judge saw fit to relase her. Morgan Geyser would be ordered to a mental hospital for forty years to life or until a judge saw fit to release her.

Anissa Weier 2021 Information

Anissa Weier was confined to the Winnebago Mental Health since she was ordered by the courts. In 2021 Anissa Weier would file for a release stating that she had exhausted all services available by the facility and she wanted to rejoin society. Surprisingly the judge agreed with her and ordered her release (read full story below

Morgan Geyser 2021 Information

Morgan Geyser is still a patient at Winnebago Mental Health and like Anissa Weier she must remain there until she has served her complete sentence or until a judge sees fit. As of 2021 Morgan Geyser has filed to be released however a judge denied the request

Anissa Weier Release

A Wisconsin judge has ordered the release of a teenager convicted of stabbing her classmate during the infamous 2014 “Slender Man” attack.

During a hearing Thursday, Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren agreed to release 19-year-old Anissa Weier from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she was initially sentenced to remain until the age of 37, the Associated Press reports.

In March, Weier petitioned for a conditional release on the grounds that she had made great progress with her treatment and was ready to re-enter society.

“By petitioning the Court for conditional release, I am NOT saying I am done with my treatment,” Weier wrote in a letter obtained by WDJT-TV dated March 8. “I am saying that I have exhausted all the resources available to me at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. If I am to become a productive member of society, I need to be a part of society.”

State prosecutors countered her petition with a statement saying they still believe she is a danger to others, adding that “her mind is still immature” and “susceptible to dangerous influences,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel previously reported.

On May 31, 2014, Weier and her friend, Morgan Geyser, lured their classmate into the woods and stabbed her 19 times, claiming that they attacked her in order to please Slender Man, a mythical creature they read about online.

At the time of the attack, all three girls were 12 years old. The victim barely survived.

Despite their young age, Weier and Geyser were tried in adult court. Weier, who was initially charged with attempted first-degree homicide, ended up with a lesser attempted second-degree homicide charge after a jury deemed her mentally ill at the time of the attack.

She accepted a plea deal in 2017 and was sentenced to the maximum 25 years in a psychiatric facility. Her sentencing agreement allowed for her to apply for supervised release after spending at least three years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute.

On Thursday, Bohren announced that state officials will have 60 days to prepare a release plan for Weier, AP reports. In the meantime, Weier will remain at the Winnebago facility.

Anissa Weier is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 10, when further arrangements will be made.

https://people.com/crime/wisconsin-teen-convicted-stabbing-friend-2014-slender-man-released-psychiatric-hospital/

Morgan Geyser Release Attempt

As one woman in the Slender Man stabbing case looks to be released in the coming weeks, the other’s hope for a change in her sentence appears to have hit a final roadblock after her latest petition was denied by the state Supreme Court.

Morgan Geyser, who was committed to 40 years to a secure mental health facility after nearly stabbing her friend to death in 2014 in Waukesha, had looked to take her case to the state’s highest court system to argue different aspects of her case.

For years, she has challenged a judge’s decision in Waukesha County Circuit Court who kept her case in the adult court system, only to be denied each time.

Geyser, who turns 19 in May, appealed in 2019 to the Court of Appeals, the state’s intermediate appellate court, arguing the venue and that her statements to police after being arrested should have been suppressed. But last August, the state’s Court of Appeals upheld the Circuit Court’s decision. A month later, Geyser filed a petition of review with the Supreme Court. Late last month, her petition was denied.

Geyser was 12 when she and Anissa Weier plotted for months to kill their middle-school classmate Payton Leutner, an act they told police they did to appease the fictitious online horror character, Slender Man.

A day after celebrating Geyser’s birthday with a sleepover, Geyser and Weier, then 12 as well, sought to executive their plan by stabbing Leutner 19 times and leaving her for dead in a wooded area of a Waukesha park. They told police they set off to live in the Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin where they believed Slender Man lived. The girls were later found by police and taken into custody where they confessed in hourslong interrogation interviews their plans to kill.

They said they believed they needed to take this action or else there would be repercussions from Slender Man, including fatal violence against them or their families. They were both held not criminally responsible for their actions due to their mental state. But Weier took her chances at a trial after pleading to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. A jury declared Weier was not guilty by mental disease or defect and was committed to the maximum 25 years.

Geyser and her attorneys said the mitigating factors — Geyser’s age and mental health (she was later diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia) — warranted an attempted second-degree intentional homicide charge, an offense that does not qualify for adult jurisdiction.

The appellate court said the circuit court made the right decision in keeping the case in adult court and that allowing into evidence Geyser’s statements during her police interview would have been “harmless” in court due to all of the other “unchallenged and overwhelming evidence.”

The appellate court also said that Geyser failed to show how suppressing her statements would have resulted in a better outcome for her when she struck a plea deal that avoided any prison time and permits her to petition for conditional release every six months.

While denying Geyser’s request, Justice Rebecca Dallet wrote that “this case raises a significant question of whether, because of her young age, mental state, and lack of parental support, the defendant’s waiver of her Miranda rights was knowing, intelligent and voluntary.” She added that “the bench, bar and public would benefit from the court’s clear and definitive declaration of the appropriate standard to apply to the harmless-error analysis when a defendant has entered a plea.”

Justice Ann Bradley joined Dallett in the dissent.

The Supreme Court’s jurisdiction is discretionary and fewer than 10% of the petitions for review filed are heard, according to the state’s courts system. While petitioners can only appeal to the Supreme Court if they lost their case in the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court’s primary function is to develop law, not to correct errors that might have occurred in the lower courts.

Weier’s hearing to be conditionally released from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute is set for March 10.

Medical professionals have evaluated Weier, now 19, over the last two months and will likely all be called to testify next month.

Anissa Weier’s commitment runs until she is 37. If her request is denied, she can also petition every six months.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/waukesha/news/waukesha/2021/02/09/slender-man-stabbing-wisconsin-supreme-court-wont-hear-morgan-geyser-case/4453926001/

Tag: wisconsin