Fravel, Kingsbury custody battle goes to court in April
(ABC 6 News) – A Winona County judge ordered a two-day trial on convicted murderer Adam Fravel’s parental rights.
Judge Dwight Luhmann ruled that there will be a pretrial conference April 7, followed by a trial April 21-22 to determine whether or not Fravel should retain his parental rights during his life sentence in prison.
In December of 2024, Adam Fravel was sentenced to life for the murder of Winona woman Madeline Kingsbury, with whom he had two children.
In late January, David and Cathy Kingsbury, Madeline’s parents, filed to terminate Fravel’s parental rights, claiming that he had failed to fulfil parental duties such as providing the children with food, shelter, clothing, and the like.
The Kingsburys received custody of the children shortly after Fravel was arrested.
Fravel is appealing his conviction, and filed to halt the parental rights case until he’s exhausted his ability to reverse his 1st- and 2nd-degree murder convictions.
He also requested that the hearings be pushed back so that his immediate family members have more time to petition for his parental rights to be transferred to them.
The Kingsbury family said they would not deny any petitions from Fravel’s family based on the length of time it took to file.
However, they argued that Fravel’s “purported innocence” did not apply to their motion to terminate parental rights based on lack of ability to care for the children.
The parental rights case will not prevent Fravel from appealing his convictions.