Wisconsin man gets life for killing grandparents

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APPLETON, Wis. (AP) — A judge on Friday sentenced a Wisconsin man accused of fatally shooting his grandparents to life in prison.

The Appleton Post-Crescent reported that Outagamie County Judge Mitchell Metropulos ordered 20-year-old Alexander Kraus to serve at least 40 years minus the three-and-a-half years he’s spent in custody before petitioning for supervised release.

Kraus pleaded guilty in 2020 to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the April 2019 deaths of 74-year-old Dennis Kraus and 73-year-old Letha Kraus at the couple’s home in Grand Chute. Alexander Kraus was 17 years old at the time of the homicides.

He tried unsuccessfully to convince a jury during a June 2021 trial that he suffered from a mental disease and couldn’t conform his actions to the law.

Kraus told the judge before he was sentenced that he loved his grandparents and that he was sorry.

First-degree intentional homicide carries a mandatory life sentence.