A Dane County judge has committed Jamie Anderson to 20 years in a mental health facility after she tried to stab her father, whom she believed to be the devil. The 34-year-old walked 16 miles to his home in Stoughton last July during a hallucinatory episode. Anderson pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
On Wednesday, Dane County Circuit Judge Mario White sentenced Jamie Anderson, 34, to a 20-year commitment at a mental health inpatient facility. The ruling followed her February plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, which the court accepted pending further evaluation. A predisposition investigation report was filed in March and reviewed by all parties, according to Dane County court records. Anderson faced initial charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon stemming from the July 1, 2025, incident at her father's residence on South Page Street in Stoughton, about 20 miles southeast of Madison. Early that morning, around 5 a.m., Anderson rang her father's doorbell after walking 16 miles from her apartment. She first asked him to help her stop hallucinating and requested a hug, but when he inquired if she was on drugs, she allegedly tried to stab him in the head with an orange knife, police said in a criminal complaint. She reportedly repeated, 'I'm going to kill you,' as they struggled inside the home. Her father pushed her over a coffee table to escape and was found around 6 a.m. on the front stoop with blood on his left arm. He told officers, 'She actually came here to kill me,' and noted his daughter's mind was 'cooked' from drug use. Anderson, found nearby with the knife, complied when ordered to drop it and admitted to police that she thought her father was the devil, had slashed him about four times, and intended to kill him. Officers described her as wide-eyed and staring at nonexistent things. Her father suffered serious injuries, including staples in his head and arm surgery.