Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Friday, May 16, 2008
Man who killed sister in ’84 won’t go to Madison home
JANESVILLE, Wis. — A man who killed his sister in 1984 won’t be moving from a state mental hospital to an adult group home in Madison after all, his lawyer says.
Mark Staskal, 44, has been treated at Mendota Mental Health Institute since being found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the stabbing death of his younger sister, Marcy, at their parents’ Milton home.
On Tuesday, Rock County Circuit Judge Michael Byron approved a conditional release plan that called for Staskal to be transferred to the group home in Madison within two weeks, but opposition to the idea soon developed. Among other concerns, opponents noted the group home is near an elementary school.
Staskal’s attorney Phil Brehm said Thursday that he was told it was a “difficult decision” for the group home operator not to take Staskal as a resident as planned.
Brehm said he was not given a specific reason for the turnabout, but his impression was that the public outcry figured in the decision.
When Staskal was released to a group home in Eau Claire last Nov. 5, his parents opposed the move, contending he was diagnosed years ago with paranoid schizophrenia and had not made enough progress to be released.
A judge approved the release, but Staskal was returned to Mendota in mid-November after residents in his Eau Claire neighborhood raised complaints.
The state Department of Health and Family Services confirmed that an update on its conditional-release plan for Staskal was being sent to Judge Byron.
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