MONROE — He has been in Green County Jail since early 2021, but another court development figures to add many more months to the time until an accused baby killer stands trial in Green County.

That is because the state is appealing a recent — and long-awaited — appellate court ruling that excluded some aspects of a confession, or series of them, made to police and a state investigator following the Jan. 2021 murder.

The Albany defendant, Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson, 16, at the time of the 2021 murder of his infant child, is being tried as an adult in the case. He is charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of moving/ hiding/burying the corpse of a child, after allegedly shooting the baby two years ago. The teen parents had attempted to hide the pregnancy, although the mother has not been charged.

At issue before he can go to trial is whether Kruckenberg-Anderson was in custody at the time of his interrogations and if so, whether he was read his Miranda rights, including the right to not speak to police.

The appellate court in August agreed to throw out some parts of his confession to police but also agreed to include portions of a previously excluded, initial confession by defendant Kruckenberg-Anderson at the Brodhead Police Department. 

At a key point in the series of interrogations, Kruckenberg-Anderson, a teen, was told he needed to confess so the child could be “properly buried.” The appellate judges ruled that all confessions after that comment and during the disputed time frame were inadmissible by the trial court and affirmed by the appellate court. 

The mixed ruling complicates the trial, as attorney’s spar over which aspects of the teen’s testimony are inadmissible. The appeal of the appellate court ruling to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, meanwhile, could take many months and there are no new hearings scheduled in the case pending that decision.

“The Supreme Court of Wisconsin has the discretion whether or not to accept the case for review of the decision by the Court of Appeals,” Green County State’s Attorney Craig Nolen said via email. “Specifically, the State is seeking complete reversal of the decision of the Circuit Court and Court of Appeals finding that portions of Kruckenberg’s statements were involuntary.”

The infant was born secretly to the defendant and a teen mother in a bathtub on Jan. 5, 2021.

Kruckenberg-Anderson first claimed to have paid someone $60 to take the baby to an adoption agency in Madison. However, after intense questioning by investigators, he revealed that he had placed the infant in a backpack and taken her to a wooded area in the village of Albany.  That is where he allegedly shot her in the head with a .22 gun.

The ordeal led state officials to pass a Safe Haven Laws bill aimed at informing Wisconsin teenagers of their options for safely leaving infants without legal action.