Man with violent history sent to prison after threatening dad with blow torch.

Matthew Krueger with defense attorney Julie Springstead Waltz.
– OCP file photo

Man with violent history sent to prison after threatening dad with blow torch.

#OceanaCountyNews

By Allison Scarbrough. Editor.

HART — The 38-year-old Mears man who crashed his pickup truck through the Shopko store in Hart in 2017 and was accused in 2015 of burning down his parents’ hobby garage in Mears followed by a rampage at the US Coast Guard Station in Grand Haven was sentenced to prison in 27th Circuit Court Monday, Aug. 19, after threatening his 65-year-old father with a blow torch.

Matthew Lawrence Krueger, of 2813 N. 34th Ave., was sentenced by Judge Bradley G. Lambrix to 30 months to 10 years in prison. Krueger received credit for 454 days served in jail.

“He was found responsible of a probation violation which involved threatening his father with a blow torch,” said Oceana County Prosecutor Joseph Bizon. “His father – the victim – advocated for no jail. I advocated for prison.”

Krueger was sentenced to one year in jail, Dec. 4, 2017, after pleading “no contest” to malicious destruction of a building for the Shopko incident. He was also ordered to pay restitution totaling nearly $53,000 and serve 18 months of probation.

“Compliance with community mental health or an equivalent” was part of his probation Bizon said previously.

Krueger was found competent to stand trial following testing at a psychiatric facility in Ypsilanti.

However, he qualified for pleading “not guilty by reason of insanity,” in the 2017 case his defense attorney, Julie Springstead Waltz, said previously. Springstead Waltz told Lambrix that she advised Krueger to plead “not guilty by reason of insanity,” but he “elected to enter a plea of ‘no contest’ against my wishes.”

Krueger was found “not guilty by reason of insanity” in August of 2015 for burning down his parents’ hobby garage in Mears the previous February and then going on a rampage at the US Coast Guard Station in Grand Haven, ramming the facility’s gate with his vehicle and assaulting a service member after calling in a bomb threat.

The 2017 case involved Krueger crashing through the former Shopko Hometown store in Hart with his pickup truck while customers and employees were inside. The store received extensive damage, but no one was injured.

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