Post Falls man gets 15 years for destroying neighbor's home with excavator
Fred J. Kudrna IV got 15 years after an excavator leveled a newly sold Post Falls home near W. Alsea Avenue and W. Platte Court.
A Post Falls man will spend 15 years in prison after an excavator was used to tear apart a newly built home near W. Alsea Avenue and W. Platte Court. Fred J. Kudrna IV, 29, received the sentence after the case that began when dispatchers started taking 911 calls at about 5:38 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2025.
Post Falls police said the house had been completed, recently sold and was not yet occupied when the destruction started. Officers later arrested Kudrna after a traffic stop in the area, turning a startling neighborhood emergency into a felony case that drew in burglary, malicious injury to property and operating a vehicle without the owner's consent.
The damage landed hardest on the people living nearby. Nate Shoemaker, one of the neighbors around the Alsea Loop and Platte Court area, woke to find the home reduced to rubble beside his own property. In court, witnesses put the value of the destroyed house at around $500,000, a figure that showed how quickly a single act of retaliation can erase months of construction and a buyer's move-in plan.
Kudrna had pleaded not guilty before the case was bound over for trial. The sentencing hearing, shown in a photo from Aug. 3, 2026, placed him back before the court after months of criminal proceedings that had already made the case one of Kootenai County's more unusual property crimes. Regional outlets including KHQ, KXLY, KREM and the Coeur d'Alene Press followed the case as it moved from the police scene to the courtroom.
For Kootenai County property owners, the case is a reminder that deliberate destruction can move swiftly from a police response to serious felony charges and a long prison term. The 15-year sentence now stands as the court's strongest deterrent message in a case that left one Post Falls neighborhood with a demolished house, a major financial loss and a lasting mark on local property-crime enforcement.
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