Accused killer was on supervised release for drug crimes
February 1, 2023
WAHPETON, N.D. (KFGO) – The Breckenridge, Minn. man who has been charged with a murder that occurred outside a Wahpeton hockey arena on January 16 was on supervised release in Minnesota for a 2020 drug felony at the time of the shooting.
33-year-old Anthony Kruger was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for selling methamphetamine in Becker County in February of 2020. He served less than two years before he was remanded to supervised released as part of the state of Minnesota’s Challenge Incarceration Program in January of 2022.
Kruger’s 2020 drug arrest happened while he was out on parole for a six year sentence for a burglary in Traverse County 2015. He was arrested for DWI four months after being let out of prison on parole for that crime in 2019. Three months later he was arrested for selling drugs. Kruger was previously sentenced to three years in prison in North Dakota for drug felonies he committed in 2012.
Minnesota’s Challenge Incarceration Program has three phases, each lasting six months. Based on the timeline set forth by the state Department of Corrections, Kruger should have finished the program just weeks before he fatally shot Jeremiah Medenwald of Hankinson. The DOC says inmates in the program were 35% less likely to be re-incarcerated for a new crime.
