A 23-year-old Wisconsin man has been charged with first degree intentional homicide, mutilating and hiding corpses, and giving false information to authorities regarding the July deaths of his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson.
During opening statements last week, Chandler Halderson’s defense lawyer claimed he was just a normal kid who likes video games and didn’t kill his parents. Meanwhile, prosecutors allege that Halderson committed the crimes after his parents discovered his lies about having a good job and attending college.
Halderson reported his parents missing on July 7 when they did not come home from a weekend getaway to Northern Wisconsin. The next day, Bart Halderson’s remains were recovered in rural Dane County; Chandler Halderson was arrested later that day. About a week later, Krista Halderson’s remains were discovered along the Wisconsin River in Saul County.
Dozens of emails have been recovered in which Chandler Halderson fabricated correspondences between himself and Madison Area Technical College where he told his parents he was a student.
Upon finding these emails, prosecutors allege there was confrontation between Chandler and his father, which resulted in Bart Halderson being shot in the back.
In a recent Court TV interview with Julie Grant, Denver defense lawyer Jeff Wolf discussed the careful approach of the defense.
“It’s hard to know what the best approach is just by watching the trial. Because there’s so much that goes into it,” explained Wolf. “There’s meetings with the client, there’s evidence that maybe isn’t going to the jury. There’s evidence that hasn’t been presented yet; questions that haven’t been asked. As of right now, what we’re seeing is something that you often have to do in a case with a bunch of witnesses. You have to be surgical about the questions you ask because the jury is waiting with bated breath for everything the defense does in response…they’re testifying about a gruesome amount of violence depicted on a body, but if your client didn’t do that, what questions do you have to ask about that body? None.”
Watch the videos above for details about this case and for more Court TV commentary from Jeff Wolf.
