Man accused of killing, dismembering parents

Chandler Halderson was surviving a lie, the prosecution successful his execution proceedings said Tuesday — astir having a job, going to schoolhouse and having a amended occupation waiting for him successful Florida.

And erstwhile his begetter figured it out, the prosecution claims, Halderson decided to termination him and his parent and dispose of their bodies, archetypal successful the household fireplace and past astir confederate Wisconsin — and past helium lied astir that, too.

Halderson, 23, presented himself to the satellite arsenic a soon-to-be postgraduate of a renewable resources engineering programme astatine Madison Area Technical College with a occupation astatine American Family Insurance but a amended 1 waiting for him astatine Elon Musk's SpaceX, Deputy District Attorney William Brown said successful his opening statement

He went truthful acold arsenic to fabricate dozens if not hundreds of emails betwixt him and MATC and American Family successful an effort to warrant the communicative helium was telling the world, including his father, Bart Halderson, who was starting to inquire questions astir wherefore helium ne'er seemed to person immoderate money, Brown explained.

Then Bart Halderson, posing arsenic his lad during a telephone telephone with a front-line idiosyncratic astatine MATC, discovered Chandler hadn't been attending school, Brown said. He fto Chandler cognize of the call, Brown said, who showed the assemblage an introduction successful his calendar for a gathering betwixt his son, him and an MATC authoritative astatine MATC from 3-5 p.m. connected July 1.

Realizing helium was astir to beryllium exposed, Chandler changeable his begetter successful the backmost connected the day of July 1 successful the Windsor location they shared with Chandler's mother, Krista Halderson, Brown said. He killed Krista Halderson erstwhile she returned location a fewer hours later, helium said, and past spent the adjacent 5 days trying to dispose of their bodies earlier filing falsified missing persons reports connected some of them with the Dane County Sheriff's Office connected July 7.

"A batch of cases statesman with a murder. This 1 is conscionable a tiny portion of the puzzle," Brown told the 18-member assemblage during his hour-plus opening statement. "Chandler spun an astonishing web of lies."

In her ain opening statement, defence lawyer Catherine Dorl called her lawsuit "just a mean kid" who liked to play video games and didn't termination his parents, and raised the anticipation that nary 1 volition ever cognize however Bart, 50, and Krista, 53, died.

"They simply don't cognize what happened," she said of the prosecution, and leaned heavy successful her ain 10-minute opening connection connected the jury's work to presume her lawsuit innocent, urging them to enactment speech their emotions erstwhile viewing disturbing grounds and to trust connected logic. It is not a juror's occupation to beryllium a "story collaborator," she said.

"Don't presume anything. Assumption is the parent of each mistakes," she said. "Look for what's missing. Look for alternate explanations."

Dorl said the state's witnesses and grounds would not beryllium "hotly contested" by the defence but said it's not imaginable to cognize however Bart and Krista Halderson mightiness person responded to Chandler's lies. She besides made wide that, astatine the extremity of the trial, defence attorneys could basal earlier the assemblage conceding that the authorities did convict Chandler of immoderate crimes, but not murder.

The proceedings continues Wednesday and is expected to past astir 3 weeks.