Judge reveals to jury Halderson’s positive COVID-19 test
Jurors will be told Friday when the trial will proceed
MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - The Dane Co. judge overseeing the homicide trial of Chandler Halderson, who is accused of killing his parents last summer, gathered jurors together Wednesday morning to reveal to them that the 23-year-old defendant had tested positive for COVID-19.
The surprising twist will temporarily hit the brakes on the trial, which is already in its second week. Judge John Hyland assembled the jurors to give them instructions on what they should do during the brief hiatus. After consulting with attorneys about how jurors should be informed of the delay and the reason for it, Hyland said someone had tested positive for the virus, without indicating who it was.
As he did, some jurors nodded along with his instructions, while one of them simply responded with a headshake.
Hyland told the jury they would be told on Friday when the trial would resume, adding that it would not be any earlier than Tuesday, noting that court would not be in session Monday because of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
“I do encourage you to stay healthy and well. I’ve been telling people the jury had been one of the best I’ve had on my time on the bench,” he said to them.
Halderson, 23, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first degree intentional homicide in the deaths of his parents, Bart and Krista Halderson. He is also accused of two counts of providing false information on a kidnapping, two counts of mutilating a corpse and two counts of hiding a corpse.
Tracking the Halderson Trial
After informing attorneys Tuesday night in a special session after the day’s testimony had already ended, the judge opened the floor to attorneys so that they may weigh in on how to proceed with the trial. The state said they would defer to the judge’s decision. However, both the prosecution and the defense attorneys emphasized that they did not wish for a mistrial, the latter asking Wednesday for the trial to be postponed until next Tuesday.
On Wednesday, during a hearing prior to the jury’s arrival to determine what exactly they would be told , defense attorney Catherine Dorl urged the judge not to tell the jury it was Halderson who tested positive, expressing concern that they could hold it against her client that the trial was delayed. Judge Hyland agreed and said he planned to tell jurors only that there “is one person who tested positive who we can’t proceed without.”
Halderson’s attorneys also expressed concern that jurors might deduce by Halderson’s absence during Wednesday’s session that he is the one who tested positive and offered options to obfuscate that fact. Hyland settled on having no attorneys in the courtroom and having them dial in by phone instead. Additionally, he would tell jurors that Halderson had waived his right to be present during this hearing.
The defense told the judge the previous evening that Chandler Halderson had been showing symptoms before the Dec. 29, 2021 and his symptoms were subsiding after that, meaning they don’t believe he was newly infected with the virus. They also noted that Halderson has not been near the jury and everyone has been masked up.
Jail protocol states inmates must be kept in isolation for 10 days. The judge will reach out to employees at the jail to see if they can make an exception to this.
The trial will be postponed, but it will not be a mistrial, the judge determined.
The Halderson Case
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Bart & Krista Halderson were last seen on July 1 by a family member at the couple’s home in Dane County.
Chandler Halderson reported to authorities that his parents were missing on July 7. At that time, authorities believed the couple had planned a trip to Langlade County, Wisconsin over the weekend and family had been unable to confirm that they arrived.
At the time, he told investigators his parents and an unknown couple had left the preceding Friday morning to visit their cabin in White Lake for the July Fourth holiday weekend.
Immediately following the missing persons report, the Dane Co. Sheriff’s Office reached out to their counterparts in Langlade Co. who checked the cabin’s property but found no one there.
The sheriff’s office upped the status of the couple’s disappearance on July 8, calling it “suspicious.” Police arrested Chandler Halderson that day for allegedly providing deputies with false information on a kidnapping.
Human remains were also located July 8 in rural Cottage Grove. The remains were confirmed to be those of Bart Halderson on July 12.
Dane Co. Sheriff Kalvin Barrett noted at that time that investigators had obtained a search warrant for the Halderson home.
“[W]e want to extend our condolences to the Halderson family,” Dane Co. Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said on July 12. “We understand that some of the details of this investigation are very difficult for them to hear and we want to be sensitive to that.”
Shortly after the medical examiner’s report was released, the Sheriff’s Office stated it now considered the missing persons case a homicide investigation. Additionally, three new counts, including first degree homicide, were filed against Halderson’s son, Chandler. At that time, Krista was still considered missing.
Sheriff Barrett explained July 9 that as investigators continued interviewing the Haldersons’ family, friends, and neighbors, they developed information that led them to the location where the remains were found.
Prosecutors noted Monday, July 11 that witnesses claimed to have seen Chandler Halderson multiple times near a wood line outside the rural Dane Co. property, where his father’s remains were later found.
During a court appearance on July 15, Court Commissioner Brian Asmus set bail for Chandler Halderson at $1 million after arguments by prosecutors and Halderson’s attorney.
Defense attorney Catherine Dorl told Asmus her client is a lifelong resident of Wisconsin, has been involved in the Boy Scouts and church groups, and has no prior criminal history. She had asked that bail be continued at $10,000.
The District Attorney’s office also released a 14-page document that day detailing the investigation into the murder of Bart Halderson.
It contains several interviews with Chandler Halderson, friends, family and witnesses. The complaint does not specify when and where Bart Halderson was killed, but it does place Chandler at the site where Bart’s remains were discovered.
According to the complaint, a family friend greeted Halderson when he arrived on her rural property on July 8 in Cottage Grove, where Bart Halderson’s remains were eventually located. The friend asked Halderson if he was OK, and he said he was not OK, and that he was having problems reading words and numbers.
The statement goes on to say Halderson asked to use the pool, the friend said yes, and observed Halderson was gone somewhere between 1-1.5 hours and when he returned, the friend told authorities Halderson was not wet and the pool cover was still intact.
The friend also observed Halderson walking around to a shed nearby on the property, where she could not see what Halderson was doing. She told authorities after that, Halderson took a dip in the pool and “[appeared] to be washing off.”
According to the document, investigators spoke with a friend of Chandler’s, who says he brought Halderson a gun and ammunition on June 12.
During a search of the Halderson home, investigators found casings that would have fired properly from the type of gun Chandler Halderson had obtained from that friend. The complaint does not go into details about the whereabouts of that firearm, or if it has been recovered.
According to the complaint, Halderson went door-to-door and asked to look at home surveillance video from neighbors. An NBC15 News reporter interviewed Halderson on July 8; the day after Bart and Krista Halderson were reported missing, and before Chandler Halderson was arrested.
While in the neighborhood, the reporter saw Halderson doing precisely that, and told the reporter he wanted to see if he could catch a glimpse of his parents leaving the house.
The complaint says Halderson asked at least one neighbor for surveillance video and asked if the camera captured the road or his house.
The document also continually comes back to a foot injury Halderson had bandaged up.
The criminal complaint also revealed that a second portion of human remains had been discovered near Old Hwy 60 along the Wisconsin River, a Department of Natural Resources property, near the Town of Roxbury.
Investigators targeted a new location on July 20 as they searched for Krista Halderson.
The Dane Co. Sheriff’s Office revealed they had been searching the Waste Management landfill, near Johnson Creek, as they searched for her.
On July 22, Dane Co. Sheriff’s Office dive teams and a cadaver dog searched a pond near the home of Bart and Krista Halderson, as the search continues for the latter.
Dane Co. Sheriff’s Office Spokesperson Elise Schaffer said they began draining the pond to gain better access in the afternoon. She said a cadaver dog alerted them to certain areas in the pond, but crews had not found anything significant.
The search is not the result of any specific tips, she explained, and searchers went there because of its proximity to the Halderson’s home.
“It’s just an obvious location that we would want to search for evidence or anything that might be related to this crime,” she said.
On Friday, July 30, the Dane Co. Sheriff’s Office confirmed remains located in the Town of Roxbury were that of Krista Halderson. As a result, its investigators asked the District Attorney’s Office to add a second first-degree homicide charges, as well as charges of hiding and mutilating a corpse, against Chandler Halderson, who was already faces the same allegations stemming from his father’s death.
“We have kept the Halderson family in our thoughts and prayers throughout this investigation and we extend our continued sympathies to them today. We ask that everyone allow them to grieve this tremendous loss with the utmost respect and dignity,” Sheriff Kalvin Barrett said that day.
Barrett also noted then that investigators found more human remains on Bart and Krista Halderson’s property. Those remains have not been identified and Barrett did not say if they were found inside the house or outdoors.
According to an updated criminal complaint August 25, it includes new information about when Krista Halderson was last seen and that authorities had found her and Bart Halderson’s cell phones and drivers licenses.
The complaint also releases new information about Krista’s last known whereabouts. Surveillance video shows that Krista left work on Thursday, July 1 around 5 p.m. and arrived home around 5:10 p.m. that day.
The same vehicle later pulls out of the Halderson’s driveway around 8:15 p.m. and stops at a Kwik Trip on the 4300 block of Windsor Drive in the Village of Windsor. A man goes in the store and buys two bags of ice. Authorities do not say who the man is.
Also in the complaint, a sheriff’s deputy states on July 28, he went to the Halderson home to process it. When he went into the garage, he found Krista and Bart’s phones and drivers licenses inside of a pair of shoes, wrapped in tinfoil and paper towels.
Authorities continued, saying they obtained text messages reportedly between Chandler and Krista that were sent on July 4 that discussed that they would be going to a parade, but the parade was actually scheduled for July 3.
Authorities also obtained Chandler’s Google search history, finding searches that referred to bodies being found, bodies being found in southern Wisconsin and his parents’ names. These searches were all made the morning of July 8, prior to authorities finding the remains of Bart Halderson later that day.
Chandler Halderson stood mute in court during his arraignment Aug. 31, leading the judge to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf. Later that night, court documents updated with a schedule of the 23-year-old’s trial dates. He withdrew his demand for a speedy trial.
In November, a judge denied the defense’s motion to prohibit news media from livestreaming court proceedings in the homicide trial. The motion was denied in part after NBC15 and other media groups fought to guarantee the public’s right to information in the trial.
A second motion, proposed to exclude the use of jail recordings and correspondence made by Halderson, was also denied in court.
On Dec. 29, Chandler Halderson appeared in court for a jury status hearing. It would be the final court appearance prior to the start of the trial.
NBC15 conducted an interview with Chandler Halderson the day of his arrest, but before he was taken into custody and formally considered a suspect in his parents’ deaths. Chandler had only consented to an audio interview, which is why he doesn’t appear on camera.
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