CRIME

Judge rules Neenah man who fatally shot grandparents in Grand Chute competent to proceed to sentencing

Appleton Post-Crescent

APPLETON - A teenager who fatally shot his grandparents will be sentenced in September after a judge ruled Friday he was competent to proceed with the case.

Alex Kraus, 20, of Neenah, has already pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide. In June 2021, 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 has been awaiting sentencing ever since because, about two months after the trial, Outagamie County Judge Mitchell Metropulos found Kraus wasn't competent to proceed and ordered him to get treatment until his competency was restored.

Kraus had three separate evaluations to determine his competency and, at a hearing Friday, Metropulos reviewed those reports and determined Kraus was competent to proceed to sentencing, which was scheduled for Sept. 2.

Kraus faces mandatory life sentences on both homicide charges, though Metropulos will decide when he will be eligible for supervised release.

Kraus 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 Kraus, 74, and Letha Kraus, 73, at their home on Edgewood Drive in Grand Chute. A police officer who searched the victims' home found, among other things, a backpack with a folder inside that contained Kraus' typed plan for killing his grandparents, the complaint says.

Kraus also "had a plan to cause harm at Neenah High School," according to a letter sent to families in the district after his arrest.

Contact Chris Mueller at 920-996-7267 or cmueller@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AtChrisMueller.