After years of attempts, a man who killed two Summit police officers nearly 40 years ago has won release from confinement at Wisconsin mental health institutions.
A six-person jury in Waukesha on Thursday found that Alan Randall should still be subject to conditions that will now be set out by the state Department of Health Services in a plan to be presented to a judge for approval in July.
Randall, now 54, killed Robert "Rocky" Atkins and Wayne Olson in January 1975, when Randall was 16. Prosecutors believe he also killed his neighbor several days earlier.
Two years after the crimes, he was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect in the officers' murders, and committed to a state mental hospital. He was acquitted in the death of his neighbor.
But for years, professionals treating Randall had said he has shown no evidence of mental illness and thought he could safely be released. While living at Winnebago Mental Health Institute, he had a job for years at an art gallery. For the past seven years, he's also worked during the day while living at the state psychiatric hospital in Mendota.
Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel said the victims' families attended the four-day trial on Randall's petition for release.
"They're upset," Schimel said, though they knew Randall was going to be released someday. They're somewhat relieved that Randall is not likely to return to Waukesha County but probably will remain near Madison or Neenah, where he has job offers.
Schimel said a judge in 1977 added a 10-year probation sentence, to be served if Randall was ever released from mental hospitals, for burglaries and other crimes committed around the time of the slayings. Theoretically, Randall could be sent to prison for that period if he violates conditions, but Schimel said there are questions about the legality of that sentence.
Randall's attorney, Craig Powell, said that the state had the burden to show clear and convincing evidence that Randall was a danger, but that most of the evidence was related to the 1975 crimes.
Meanwhile, mental health professionals testified that Randall hasn't suffered from a mental illness since 1989 and has never been on medication.
One of the social workers who worked with Randall called him "a normal person in an abnormal situation," Powell said.
Powell said he's not sure Randall knows exactly what he wants to do next.
"I think it's still sinking in for him that it's finally happened," he said, referring to Randall's prior unsuccessful attempts to win release.
"He's just hoping for some plan that will allow him to continue to succeed," Powell said.
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