The criminal case against the father of a Madison school shooter will move forward after a Dane County court commissioner ruled there is probable cause to believe he gave his daughter access to the guns used in the deadly attack.
Jeffrey Rupnow, 43, of Madison appeared in court Thursday on felony charges. He faces two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to someone under 18 and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Prosecutors say Rupnow’s 15-year-old daughter brought two of her father’s handguns to the Abundant Life Christian School on Dec. 16 before killing two other people and then herself.
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Although both of those guns were legally purchased in Rupnow’s name, he told investigators he had given the firearms to his teenage daughter as gifts, according to a criminal complaint.
According to prosecutors, Rupnow’s daughter brought both of those guns to her school on the day of the shooting, but she only fired one of them during the incident.
On Thursday, Commissioner John Rome agreed to have the case bound over to a future trial. That means he believes there’s enough evidence to show that Rupnow probably committed a felony. That threshold is lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard of evidence that would be needed to secure a conviction.
Rupnow’s defense attorney, Lisa Goldman, argued Thursday that one of the charges against Rupnow — the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor — should be dropped. Rome denied her request to dismiss that charge.
Authorities say Rupnow’s daughter opened fire during a mixed-grade study hall, killing 14-year-old freshman Rubi Vergara and 42-year-old teacher Erin West. Six other people were injured.
Rupnow said his daughter had helped cover some of the cost of one of the handguns with her own money, and he paid for the rest, according to the complaint. That gun was the one his daughter fired inside Abundant Life, authorities say.
Rupnow also told police he gave the other gun to his daughter as a Christmas present, prosecutors allege.
Additionally, Rupnow said his daughter had one of her guns out of its safe on the night before the Monday morning shooting and was cleaning it, according to prosecutors. Rupnow told investigators he couldn’t remember whether the gun was put back in its safe, according to the complaint. He also admitted that his daughter might have known the safe’s passcode, the criminal complaint says.
Rupnow was jailed in May after Dane County prosecutors filed the charges.
He’s no longer in jail custody after posting his $20,000 bond.
The complaint filed against Rupnow describes how his daughter had a history of suicidal ideation and says she had intentionally cut herself in the past. It also describes how she discussed her enthusiasm for mass violence on social media and in online forums.
During the hearing Thursday, Goldman attempted to cast doubt on how much Rupnow knew about his daughter’s troubled mental state in the months before the shooting.
Investigators have described online messages in which the teen expressed her admiration for mass shooters and bragged about her own plans for attacks. But Goldman said Thursday Rupnow didn’t have access to many of his daughter’s social media accounts.
“It’s relevant to the fact that they’re saying he contributed to the delinquency of the minor,” Goldman said. “If he doesn’t know about these communications, it can’t possibly be a part of his contribution to her delinquency.”
The teen was in therapy from October 2021 to June 2024 in the aftermath of her parents’ divorce, and Goldman said the therapist’s notes did not flag the girl as a danger to herself or others.
In their criminal complaint, prosecutors say Rupnow told police his daughter had made suicidal statements, but that Rupnow interpreted them as being mostly about her desire not to go to school.
The complaint also references a text message that Rupnow sent a woman 11 days before the Abundant Life shooting, in which he wrote “yeah my kid would shoot me if I left the fun (sic) safe open right now.”
Goldman said Rupnow made those remarks because his daughter was upset after he took away some of electronics as a consequence for misbehavior.
The court heard testimony Thursday from one person — a Madison police detective who responded to the shooting, and who was among the officers to question the shooter’s father in the aftermath.
At multiple times, Rome agreed to uphold Ozanne’s objections to some of Goldman’s questions. He said they weren’t relevant to the issue of whether there’s enough evidence for Rupnow to stand trial.
“The defense would like to argue matters which probably are for a jury and not for this stage,” Ozanne said.
According to the court documents, the online behavior of Rupnow’s daughter had attracted police attention more than two years before the shooting.
In June of 2022, Madison police officers “notified the defendant of high-risk behavior that (his daughter) was engaging in via the internet,” the complaint against Rupnow says.
It’s not clear what details police gave Rupnow at the time. Earlier this year, the Madison Police Department denied a public records request from WPR for documents related to that notification to Rupnow, citing the ongoing criminal prosecution.
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