Wisconsin
Murder suspect Zachary Fritz enters plea of not guilty in stabbing death of his wife at La Crosse home
A La Crosse man accused of fatally stabbing his wife more than 50 times will be scheduled for trial.
Zachary Fritz was arrested in June for the beating and stabbing death of his wife at their La Crosse home. On Thursday, sheriff’s investigator Fritz Leinfelder testified at a court hearing that the victim was stabbed multiple times with a sharp object around the head and neck, and said Zachary Fritz had trouble recalling what had happened.
Fritz pleads not guilty to one count of first-degree murder. Judge Elliott Levine set another hearing in the case for November.
At that time, the 36-year-old Fritz may be allowed to change his plea to not guilty by reason of mental disease. He remains in jail, with a cash bond set at $1 million.
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LG
August 2, 2024 at 4:29 pm
Unfortunately, for the deceased victim, his wife, this is an example of how the mental health system fails society. A brief review of CCAP Reveals that he was found not guilty by reason of insanity back in 2009 for domestic violence. I can find no evidence that he was put on the chapter 51 system, nor can I find evidence that he received an” order to treat”, which means court ordered medication with medication monitoring. Such information is kept confidential So only the court system and county corporation Council would know for sure. Orders to treat can be renewed annually by a judge when chapter 51 comes up for review. His wife is now deceased from multiple stab wounds. I hope the mental health system doesn’t fail society a second time.
Pam Welke
October 1, 2024 at 11:12 am
Yeah I’m one of those victims where my husband died in front of behavioral health in Lacrosse in 2018 he was overmedicated to death at the age of 61 after many injections by their studies most of their medications causes more problems than good on this problem it actually makes them more violent as time goes my husband was a good man but he was diagnosed with schizophrenia I was married to him for 30 years nothing’s harder than telling your kids why your father is dead after the last injection and bouncing off four Park vehicles and the system covering up their mess they’re always covering up their messes on their studies this is not surprising what’s happened in my neighborhood I live in the neighborhood where Fritz lived and I watched how the system dealt with that while the woman was struggling with him over a couple of years cops were constantly taking them out of the neighborhood and put them in the front seat and he just show right back up on the door again or he be circling all night long in our neighborhood stocking her before killing her at the time last January I watched him circle our neighborhood many many times around stocking her cuz she did not want to be around him he had no reason to be in that house our system is really messed up around here nobody’s safe around here with our system anymore my husband 61 years old and town has 16 year old why his dad is dead because of over medicated to death on their studies and I couldn’t stop it for 2 years I knew he was being over medicated and I could not stop him to get the proper treatments that he deserved
LG
August 2, 2024 at 10:04 pm
Continued…
In 2009, he was charged with false imprisonment, substantial battery with intention to cause bodily harm, strangulation an suffocation And threats to cause harm. All charges were dismissed With the exception of just a few which were deemed guilty, but not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. in short, sounds like pretty dangerous behavior Without consequence, except to the victim.