Nicholas Grundman is accused of setting gasoline on fire in a garage attached to his estranged wife’s home.
APPLETON, Wis. — An Outagamie County judge has ordered Nicholas Grundman to stand trial after testimony in a case accusing him of setting fire to his estranged wife’s attached garage while she was inside the home.
The ruling moved the case beyond its early charging stage and toward arraignment, which was scheduled for May 5. Grundman, 47, faces attempted first-degree intentional homicide, two arson counts, stalking, three counts of criminal damage to property and carrying a concealed weapon. The charges stem from a March 19 fire at a Greenville home where his estranged wife was sleeping before smoke spread through the house.
The April preliminary hearing focused on whether prosecutors had enough evidence to keep the felony case moving. After an officer testified, the court ordered Grundman to stand trial. That decision did not decide guilt. It meant the state had met the lower threshold needed at that point in the case. Grundman had earlier appeared in court April 6, when bond was set at $1 million cash. He remained accused, not convicted, as the case moved into its next phase.
The criminal complaint describes a fire that began shortly after midnight inside an attached garage on Fawn Ridge Court. The woman called 911 after waking to smoke. She told police one of her cats pawed at her face and woke her. “Within seconds, my house was full of smoke,” she told investigators. She said she was alone, escaped with three cats and two dogs and then used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Her car and some belongings tied to her son were damaged.
Fire investigators treated the scene as suspicious. The Village of Greenville Fire Department responded first, and the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation assisted. Officials said the fire was in the garage attached to the home, which was occupied when the fire started. Investigators later reported finding evidence of an accelerant and a bottle of lighter fluid. Those details became central to the state’s argument that the fire was set on purpose rather than caused by accident.
The complaint also placed the fire within a series of alleged events tied to the couple’s separation. The woman filed for divorce in February after about a year and a half of marriage. She told police she had asked Grundman to leave in January after finding him intoxicated and newly unemployed. She said she paid for him to stay in a hotel and then an Airbnb, but later lost track of him after he left the rental. The home where the fire occurred was listed in records tied to both the criminal case and the divorce proceedings.
Prosecutors allege that Grundman continued contacting the woman after leaving the home. The complaint says she described calls and text messages coming nearly every 30 minutes through the night. She told police she called him on the day of the fire to tell him to stop contacting her. Investigators said he made a threat before hanging up. Police later asked whether she feared him. She said, “Absolutely.” That account became part of the basis for the stalking charge and gave prosecutors a timeline leading into the fire.
Police arrested Grundman on March 31 at a construction site where he was working. Officers said he had a backpack with a loaded Ruger Security-9 handgun. His wife told police he had taken the handgun when he left the home. The concealed weapon charge comes from that arrest, not from an allegation that the gun started the fire. Still, investigators included the weapon in the complaint as they described the circumstances of the arrest and the broader case.
Questioning after the arrest is another major part of the complaint. Grundman initially told police he was not “technically” at the house, but said he had been “being stupid.” He said he regularly drove past the home to see whether his wife had someone over. He told investigators the night before the fire was one of his “driving around days” and said he drank heavily. Police wrote that his voice began to shake as they asked about the garage and access to it.
Investigators said Grundman eventually acknowledged entering the garage. According to the complaint, he said he used gasoline from a red container, put some near a refrigerator and more on the right side of the refrigerator and a workbench, then lit it with a lighter. The complaint says he told police he felt remorse and felt terrible. He denied that he intended to kill his wife. That denial leaves intent as a central question in the attempted homicide charge.
The legal stakes are high because attempted first-degree intentional homicide can carry a potential life sentence if prosecutors prove the charge. The arson and stalking counts add separate allegations about the fire and the conduct before it. The criminal damage counts address the property harmed in the garage, including the woman’s vehicle and other items. Court records and public reports do not show that the woman suffered physical injuries, but prosecutors allege the fire created a deadly risk because it was set in an attached garage while she was inside.
Several facts remain limited in the public record. Officials have not released a full damage estimate. They have not publicly detailed every result from forensic testing. They also have not named the woman, consistent with many reports involving alleged domestic violence. What is public is the procedural posture: arrest March 31, formal charges filed in early April, $1 million cash bond, a preliminary hearing, an order binding the case over for trial and an arraignment date in May.
The next court step was Grundman’s May 5 arraignment in Outagamie County. The case remained pending, with prosecutors preparing to press the charges and the defense expected to answer them in court.
Author note: Last updated April 28, 2026.