MONROE — Despite a long-awaited state appellate court ruling tossing out parts of the police confession-related evidence against him, bond will not be reduced for Logan Kruckenberg-Anderson of Albany, accused of fatally shooting his infant child, Harper, to death in January 2021.

Kruckenberg-Anderson, now 20, but 16 at the time of the crime, faces felony charges of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse in connection with the crime not long after baby Harper’s death. 

The defendant has been in jail on $1 million bond for more than three years since the original murder charges were filed. He has been a resident of Green County Jail mostly ever since, and his attorney wanted to give him some hope for release pre-trial.

For much of Kruckenberg-Anderson’s time in jail, the state appellate court was considering that key evidentiary ruling and thus, no court dates had been set or held for months — that is until Monday, July 29. 

That was the date of the first hearing following a July 25 ruling upholding the lower-court judge’s decision throwing out some of the evidence against the defendant as improperly obtained, or in legal parlance, “fruit of the poison tree.”

His defense attorneys argued that in the time he has been in jail, Kruckenberg-Anderson has sought counseling at every opportunity and meets regularly with his pastor. The defense repeated the number of days he has spent in jail since his arrest: 1,294 days. They said he is not a flight risk and poses no threat to the community. And the defense argued that the evidence presented from jailhouse phone calls was culled years ago, immediately after the defendant’s arrest and that he is a different man than the one full of teen “bravado” and fear in the time immediately after the crime.

But Assistant District Attorney Laura Kohl vehemently opposed a bond reduction, listing evidence from the early, jail-house phone calls alleging that Kruckenberg-Anderson was variously attempting to contact witnesses, the baby’s mother; and that he threatened others and even suicide if he ever got out of jail.

She also reiterated details of the crime, in which the defendant is accused of sneaking the newborn out in 2021 to a wooded area and shooting her twice with a .22 LR gun. Two shell casings were found — one near baby Harper and one in the backpack police recovered that is alleged to have been used to carry Harper to her untimely death.

On that fateful night, allegedly terrified —  with the baby’s mother — of anyone finding out about the newborn, testimony indicated.

“After I laid her (baby Harper) in the snow she started crying, that’s when I shot her in the head,” Kohl said, quoting Kruckenberg-Anderson’s confession with police, some of which have now been ruled inadmissible, as he was not properly given his Miranda rights for part of those sessions.

Still, the defense — attorneys Kevin Smith and Jaclyn Solinger — took turns arguing that the state’s overall homicide case is less weighty in light of the appellate ruling, and that the evidence about jailhouse phone calls presented Monday occurred years ago and was meant to instill fear in the public that would prevent the defendant from ever getting bond.

Meanwhile, as for the evidence to be thrown out of the case, the exact parts of several confessions that will not be admitted at trial will be sorted in detail during likely multiple pre-trial hearings, the first of which is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sept. 5 in Bucher’s court.

The state, Kohl said, still has in evidence a “remaining voluntary, Mirandized statement demonstrating guilt.”

Prior to Monday’s hearing, the judge offered to recuse herself from the case because she was working for the Green County Public Defender’s office at the time the initial charges were brought, although she said she was likely working at home as the crime occurred during the recent pandemic.

“The question (of recusal) is an open question,” said Judge Jane Bucher, prior to leaving her courtroom to allow the attorneys on both sides to decide whether to seek it.

Ultimately, though, neither side asked for recusal and thus the case moves forward under Bucher.