30-year mental health commitment ordered for man charged in suspected murder plot (2024)

A judge on Tuesday ordered a 30-year mental health commitment for a DeForest man who pleaded no contest last week to attempted homicide but was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect as part of a plea agreement.

Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds gave the order for the commitment — which had been agreed to by attorneys for Gabriel Savage and by prosecutors — ending a case that began in March 2022 when DeForest police officers addressed a parking complaint but instead found a well-armed young man with a plan to rape and kill a former high school classmate and her family.

Savage, 20, was charged with four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of attempted first-degree sexual assault. On Friday, only days before a jury was to be selected for his trial, he pleaded guilty to one of the attempted homicide charges and was found, by agreement of the attorneys, not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

The 30-year commitment is 10 years shy of the maximum 40-year commitment Savage faced. He will begin his commitment to the state Department of Health Services at an inpatient state mental health institution, where it is expected he will remain for many years due to the severity of his condition.

Reynolds said the commitment is among the longest she’s seen.

“I think we all appreciate you taking responsibility and not putting everyone through the trial,” Reynolds told Savage.

Under Wisconsin law, Savage can petition every six months for release from the institution, but he must be able to present convincing evidence to a judge that he is no longer a danger to himself or others.

Deputy District Attorney William Brown said that due to the conditions Savage suffers, from which he experiences delusions that have, for example, caused him to cover all electronic devices in his home and elsewhere with aluminum foil, doctors who have examined him have said it “will likely be years before he makes clinical progress, if ever.”

Savage’s former classmate, speaking in court by telephone, said she continues to be afraid that someday Savage will be free and will set out to finish what he started. She said she knew so little about him after his arrest that she had to consult a yearbook to figure out who he was.

The agreed commitment, she said, places little value on the lives of herself and her family and she said it’s not known whether Savage will be any better in 30 years.

“I would rather not bet my and my family’s lives on whether he’ll be well enough” not to harm them in the future, she said.

Savage’s mother, Lisa Savage, said it’s long been known that her son suffered from some sort of mental illness, but her family was constantly let down by a system content to dole out 15-minute therapy appointments and some pills every few months rather than do the serious work needed to diagnose and treat her son.

“If the professionals had done their jobs we wouldn’t be here,” she said.

Instead, his condition deteriorated until he suffered a psychotic break, she said.

Jennifer Cunha, one of the attorneys representing Savage, said it was Savage’s choice to take the plea agreement and the commitment. She said he was more worried that he would have been found not guilty at his trial, and then freed without any mandated treatment, Cunha said.

“This is his choice to accept this commitment,” she said. “This is his choice to accept this treatment.”

Savage declined to speak when he was given the opportunity.