State Rep. Bob Donovan and top Greenfield officials are expressing outrage and concern over the release of a man who is accused of randomly stabbing a worker to death who was collecting soil samples along the side of the road.
Amando Lang was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the murder of Ben Christianson, 49, who was stabbed in the neck in 2019 while collecting soil samples in Greenfield for an engineering company, according to the criminal complaint.
The homicide case was suspended in 2020 and turned into a civil commitment when it was determined that Lang would likely never regain competency, but that’s where it all unravels. He was freed – although when is not yet clear – and top officials say they weren’t told.
“We learned from that (Lang) stays at a group home on the south side of Milwaukee and he can come and go as he pleases as it is not a secure facility,” a Greenfield police report from June 15 says. Read that report here:
Even though the DA’s office was supposed to be given at least 14 days’ notice when a person is released from a civil commitment so they can seek another competency hearing in a quest to reinstate the criminal case, that didn’t happen, and it’s unclear why. In addition, Greenfield officials and Donovan say they didn’t know Lang was back in the community until police arrested him – again – in Greenfield on June 15 after his mother reported that he was having hallucinations and they discovered he had a retail theft warrant.
“There was no notification to the community or local officials regarding his release,” Donovan said.
“The county department…to whose care and custody the person is committed shall notify the court which discharged the person…, the district attorney for the county in which that court is located and the person’s attorney of record in the prior criminal proceeding at least 14 days prior to transferring or discharging the defendant from an inpatient treatment facility and at least 14 days prior to the expiration of the order of commitment or any subsequent consecutive order, unless the county department or the department of health services has applied for an extension,” state law reads.
The crime was horrific. The criminal complaint says the victim was found lying in the grass with a stab wound to the neck. The “jugular vein and carotid artery had been cut” and the weapon “had gone about 2 & ½ inches into Christianson’s neck,” the complaint says. A witness said the attacker was wearing all black with a bandana over his face. “I had to kill that f****** man,” the complaint quotes Lang as saying. The two did not know each other.
Read the criminal complaint here:
2019CF003856 Criminal Complaint_1 – Lang Amando Elijah.pdf 10373312
“I was made aware of situation in Greenfield Monday afternoon. The samurai sword wielding murderer of a utility worker in Greenfield in 2019 was again back on the streets,” Donovan wrote in a statement on Facebook (although Lang was accused of wielding a sword in the past, the complaint says he said he used an automatic knife to stab the victim.)
“Amando Lang is a disturbed individual with obvious mental health issues. He was incompetent to stand trial for the murder and was committed to Mendota Mental Health Institute. Fast forward to the present and Greenfield police are sent to his mother’s home where they encounter him after he had threatened his mother,” Donovan wrote.
“This is Not How Justice Should Work,” Donovan headlined his post.
Meanwhile, the Milwaukee County DA’s office confirms that it has the ability to seek a new competency hearing that could lead to reinstatement of proceedings in the first-degree intentional homicide case against Amando Lang that was suspended due to competency questions. A hearing scheduled in the case is upcoming.
Compounding the issues, the DA “is not informed of Lang’s current mental health condition” because of HIPAA laws, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. And Deputy DA Sara Sadowski told WRN that “civil commitment proceedings are confidential and protected. The District Attorney’s office is not a party to those commitment proceedings. Therefore, our office has no information on the release of Amando Lang, and our office was not notified that he was going to be released.”
We contacted the state Department of Health Services seeking comment, but did not get a response. We are also reached out to the county Health & Human Services Department and County Executive David Crowley’s office. We tried to all the Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel’s office but they aren’t open on Fridays.
“How the hell does this happened? He has been staying at a halfway house that I would characterize as a quarter house given the fact they are letting this individual wander the streets unsupervised,” added Donovan.
“I have spoken with Mayor Neiztke, who has diligently been pursuing this issue, and Milwaukee DA Kent Lovern about what action is needed from the state. This could have been another tragedy waiting to happened and there must be serious explaining as to how we arrived at this situation,” he said.
The Greenfield mayor did not return requests from Wisconsin Right Now for comment but was critical in other media of the release.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Lang, 24, was arrested June 15 “after reportedly experiencing hallucinations, possibly due to a reaction to his prescription medication. He had an active warrant for retail theft.” That’s when officials learned he was back in the community.
“When officers arrived, they found Lang behaving erratically — making involuntary movements and screeching noises,” the newspaper reported.
Lang’s mother told police that he was living in a group home that was “not a secure facility” and he was free to come and go, and she couldn’t reach his social worker.
Acting Police Chief Eric Lindstrom told WRN: “He was arrested on the municipal warrant for the unpaid retail theft citation. That amount was posted on and he was taken to the Mental Health Emergency Center. We did not have any charges and he is not being held by us. It is unknown of his whereabouts nor what happened after he went to Mental Health.” He added that the retail theft was for an incident that occurred before the homicide.
He added, “We became aware he was out of custody when our officer’s responded to a residence for a 911 call. I spoke with the DA’s office on Monday and they did not know he was out in the community either. The DA’s office took quick steps to set up a court hearing to assess Mr. Lang’s competency which is Monday (23rd). I don’t know who was supposed to notify whom or what those legal timelines require, but the ball got dropped somewhere.”
He added, “This is a rare but deeply serious matter that demands our full attention. Mr. Lang has already shown a disturbing willingness to commit an unprovoked act of extreme violence. My concern stems solely from a desire to protect our community. Allowing him to walk freely among us does not foster a sense of safety or security. Anyone capable of carrying out such a brutal attack should not be granted the same freedoms as law abiding citizens. For the well-being of our community, I strongly urge that appropriate measures be taken to ensure he does not pose a continued threat.”
“The system has failed us when someone with seemingly serious mental health issues — accused of brutally murdering an innocent person five years ago — is the subject of a police call in our community, blocks away from where the killing occurred,” Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Near as I can tell, no one from our police department or the District Attorney’s Office was notified of his return to the community because he could only be held in treatment for so long.”
Neitzke told the newspaper that “he was told the county had no place to house Lang after his release.”
Lindstrom told TMJ4: “This was a brutal homicide right out on the street. That was a violent unprovoked attack.”
“I was in shock just like all of our officers were in shock that he was actually there (at the unsecured facility). We all believed that while he was pending whatever criminal process or psychiatric processes he was going through, that he was in some sort of secure custody,” Lindstrom said to the television station.
Sara Sadowski, Deputy DA for Milwaukee County, told WRN: “On December 8, 2020, in case 2019CF3856, Amando Lang was found ‘Not Competent and Not Likely’ to regain. The criminal case was ‘suspended,’ and the court converted the case to a civil commitment, per Wisconsin Statute 971.14(6).”
At that point, she said, “Corporation Counsel then assumes responsibility for that civil commitment.”
She added: “The District Attorney’s office has no legal mechanism to oppose Mr. Lang’s release from a civil commitment. While the criminal case was suspended, it was not closed. Under 971.16(6)(d), we can bring Mr. Lang back into court for a new competency evaluation if we believe his status has changed. If he is deemed competent, the proceedings can be reinstated, and the criminal case will pick up where it left off. If he is deemed not competent, the criminal case will remain in suspended status.”
Ben Christianson “was taken from us through a random act of violence on Tuesday, August 27, 2019. He was working at a job site near Greenfield, Wisconsin, when slain,” his obituary says.
“Ben was born to Don and Jane Christianson, September 2, 1969, in Wausau and grew up in the John Marshall neighborhood on Wausau’s southeast side, graduated from Wausau East and the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a degree in hydrogeology. He worked for Ramaker & Associates, an engineering firm in Sauk City, and lived in Madison for the past 26 years,” it adds.
“Summers were filled with fishing trips to the Turtle Flambeau Flowage with his friends, with kayaking, biking, jogging and other activities. Being a typical Wisconsin male, fall meant deer hunting trips to his land for good times with his brother, uncles and cousin in an old fashioned log cabin,” it adds. “Winter meant downhill skiing and racing at Cascade Mt. or cross- country skiing wherever the snow was best.”
Fox 6 previously reported that “a week before the stabbing, Lang sent a Snapchat message to a friend, saying he was, ‘Trying to smell death.'”
Lang “was once photographed by a neighbor wielding a sword,” the television station reported.
