Prosecutors are trying to get an additional charge of attempted murder pressed against Eric Hainstock. Hainstock is accused of shooting and killing Weston Schools principal John Klang.
Prosecutors allege that Hainstock also pointed the gun at his own special education teacher, James Nowak, prior to the death of Klang. Nowak is the same teacher who Hainstock allegedly threw a stapler at.
Of course, the defense is not happy…
“We have eight business days between now and the day we pick a jury and go to trial,” said Rhoda Ricciardi, one of the Madison-based attorneys representing 16-year-old Hainstock. “And now we are also supposed to defend against an attempted homicide? If that’s not prejudice, sir, I don’t know what is.”
The prosecution offered this explanation…
Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett said she previously mentioned the possibility of additional charges to Hainstock’s defense team, but only recently received the transcripts of prior testimony necessary to go forward with the additional charge. She said there is no new evidence defense attorneys must study.
As much as I’d like to see Hainstock get as much time as possible, I doubt the attempted murder charge will stick or even be allowed.
This is something that’s been sticking in my craw for 10 years now.
Back in 1997, serial killer Andrew Cunanan went on an interstate killing spree. It started in Minnesota when he killed his friend Jeffery Trail. Two days later, he killed architect David Madson also in Minnesota. According to Wikipedia, police recognized a connection, as Trail’s body had been found in Madson’s Minneapolis loft apartment, and started an intensive nationwide manhunt. This barely made a blip in the national media.
Next, Cunanan killed 72-year-old real estate developer Lee Miglin in Chicago. Cunanan escaped Chicago in Miglin’s car. His next murder kind of hit home for me.
Cunanan’s next victim was William Reese from Pennsville, New Jersey. In 1997, I was living one county over from Pennsville. The local media exploded all over the story but still hardly anything on the national front.
Cunanan stole Reese’s truck with which he drove to Miami, where he claimed his most famous victim, fashion designer Gianni Versace. That’s when the story blew up in the national media. Yet, all the focus was on Versace. Very little mention was made of Cunanan’s other victims. Eight days later, Cunanan killed himself in a Miami houseboat.
All I saw on the national media at that point were stories about other celebrities who lived in the Miami area who feared for their ‘lives’ while Cunanan was on the loose after Versace’s murder. Again, little to no mention of Cunanan’s other victims.
Fast-forward to today. Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the death of Gianni Versace, and nothing has changed. No disrespect intended to the Versace family, but again the article I linked to above made no mention whatsoever of Cunanan’s other victims.
So what’s my point? Well, besides the fact that the national media obviously doesn’t really care about murder victims unless they’re famous, my point is that not everyone has forgotten the names of Jeffery Trail, Dave Madson, Lee Miglin, and William Reese.
The other day, I posted about the Florida woman who was gang-raped and forced to have sex with her son. Two teens have already been arrested for the brutal and disgusting attack. Those teens are Avion Lawson, 14, and Nathan Walker, 16. Now a third teen has been arrested.
Fingerprints in the woman’s house linked 15-year-old Jakaris Sansay Taylor to the June 18 attack, West Palm Beach police spokesman Ted White said.
The state attorney’s office will be seeking a grand jury indictment for all defendants in the case to ensure they are charged as adults, spokesman Mike Edmondson said.
Taylor was arrested on charges of home invasion robbery with a firearm, wearing a mask while committing an offense, sexual battery and armed sexual battery with multiple perpetrators. He will be transferred to a juvenile detention center once investigators finish questioning him, police said.
They shouldn’t even be tried as adults. They should be put down like dogs.
A lot of people have been asking me lately if I’ve heard about a trial date for Sean Brown and Matt McCombs. They’re the alleged killers of Ashton Glover. They were friends of Ashton, who shot her in the head out of “morbid curiosity”.
Anyway, the trial is set for the first week of October. They’re both facing first-degree murder charges. I don’t know if prosecutors will be seeking the death penalty or not.
Here we go again. At least investigators are finally speaking out about internet allegations.
ATLANTA (FOX 5) – Investigators in the Benoit murder case reacted Thursday night to an internet report that Nancy Benoit feared for her life. The report also claimed that Chris Benoit had recently moved out of the family home because of trouble, but investigators said such reports proved to be frustrating.
Fayette County detectives said there was no truth to a report that was posted on the website, prowrestling.com that said that Nancy had written what the website called, “a strange note” before her death that stated that if something happened to her then Chris would be to blame.
Investigators said a safe deposit box, which the website reported contained the note, actually held typical documents and had no personal writings from Nancy Benoit in it.
Detectives say this kind of internet report is typical of what they call conspiracy theories that have been phoned into the Sheriff’s office from as far away as California since the bodies were discovered.
Got it? There was no strange note written by Nancy Benoit. As much as I love the dirt sheet websites, they are really starting to piss me off.
If you ever thought the National Ledger website was a legitimate news source, you may want to rethink that.
An investigation by the National Enquirer’s investigative team uncovered what they report as the “real” story of what happened on the tragic weekend that superstar wrestler Benoit snapped – killing his family and then himself. Many have blamed steroids but the report claims that there was booze involved.
The online item claims that Chris was guzzling beer and wine in agony and the popular grappler made sad, slurred phone calls to friends as he prepared to snuff out his life. “When he killed his wife, his life was over and he knew it,” an insider told the weekly magazine. “But he still had his beloved son, and who would take care of him? That’s why it all ended in the ultimate tragedy.”
Yeah. When I want the “real story” the first source I go to is the National Enquirer. I guess they figured they can’t be sued by dead people.
This is the latest from the Benoit rumor mill. The headline wants you to believe there was some nefarious reason for Benoit taking out the insurance policy, but the article, as short as it is, says otherwise.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter are reporting that Chris Benoit took out a new life insurance policy, which listed his ex-wife and oldest child David, 14, and Megan, 10, as the beneficiaries. Nancy apparently confronted Chris about it and he refused to change it. Nancy also found out that Chris Benoit set up a new bank account in the name of his ex-wife in Edmonton.
Remember kids, dirt sheets, like The Observer, base their business models on rumor and speculation. Which is fine for an upcoming wrestling storyline or a wrestler changing companies, but as far as a real-life murder goes, they need to leave the crime reporting to the professionals. And no, I don’t consider myself a professional.
So to recap from the dirt sheets and irresponsible media, we have 3 motive allegations. “Roid Rage”, the Benoits arguing over Daniel’s Fragile X Syndrome which he may or may not have had, and now the insurance policy.
This just goes to show you just how ridiculous and uninformed not only the wrestling press can be, but the mainstream press as well.
Can we finally drop the whole “roid rage” issue? No. Ok, if you won’t listen to me, how about some expert professionals?
Domestic violence experts downplay the possible role of steroids in the Chris Benoit killings, saying the tragedy was more about Benoit’s anger over control issues at home.
Steroid usage has been linked to angry outbursts called “roid rage,” and depression when usage stops.
But in the case of Benoit, who apparently killed his wife and 7-year-old son during the weekend of June 24 before committing suicide, “that was a premeditated act and that’s not rage,” said Dr. Gary Wadler of New York, who studies the use of drugs in sports.
“I would wonder whether there was some underlying psychiatric abnormality that was unmasked by being on steroids,” he said.
“It’s sort of counterintuitive that he’s raging for three days straight,” said Nancy Grigsby, executive director of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “Unfortunately, it looks like a garden variety domestic violence incident to me. It’s a decision, and they’re actually typically quite calm when they give themselves permission to do what they want to do.”
The killings at the Benoit home occurred over an entire weekend, which does not point to rage, experts said.
Penn State University epidemiologist Charles Yesalis, who has studied steroids for 30 years, said “anabolic steroid rage is a spontaneous behavior. From what I’ve read, the death of Benoit and his family wasn’t spontaneous. I don’t see steroids had much, if anything, to do with this.”
I’m sorry, but this is idiotic and sensationalist at best.
This is a picture of Chris Benoit applying the Crippler Crossface.
His hands are clearly around the face of his opponent, not the throat. The crossface is designed to injure the opponent’s neck and back, not the throat.
District Attorney Scott Ballard says, “A choke hold was used, rather than hands. There’s no bruising consistent with strangulation by hands.”
The crossface is not a chokehold, hence the word crossface.
Wrestling writer Dave Meltzer adds, “There was bruising consistent with the Crippler Crossface on one arm and Daniel’s face. There were no bruises on his neck.
No offense to Dave Meltzer, but you’re a wrestling writer, not a forensics expert. Consistent does not mean conclusive.
“But police don’t believe, because of the size difference, that the hold was applied exactly as in a wrestling match.”
Somebody wake me up when that comes from a legitimate news source and not a gossip rag or a dirt sheet.
Due to Daniel’s size, I doubt Benoit could have locked his son’s arm between his legs. In my opinion, he used the stereotypical chokehold, using one arm around the throat and using the free arm to apply pressure on the occupied arm.
A source having access to certain of Daniel’s medical reports reviewed those reports, and they do not mention any pre-existing mental or physical impairment. Reports from Daniel’s educators likewise contradict the claims that Daniel was physically undersized.
Uh-huh. A source, you say? That source better watch his ass because if that information is true, leaking that information to the press without the permission of law enforcement violates a number of federal privacy laws whether the patient is deceased or not.
And again I say wake me when this comes from a legitimate news source.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am in no way excusing what Benoit did. I have dubbed him the Canadian Coward, and I stand by that. However, just because pro-wrestling is involved, let’s not turn this into some conspiracy theory, over-sensationalized crapfest in order to see who can be the first to break a detail about the case whether it’s true or not.
Chris Benoit’s former wife, Martina Benoit, said the star wrestler “was the most loving person anyone could imagine. I love him.”
Reached at her home in Ardrossan, Alberta, Canada, Benoit called reporting of the killings in Fayette County “crap.” She did not elaborate before ending the call.
Maybe to her and their kids, he was, but obviously, he wasn’t to Nancy and Daniel.
But in the wake of the lurid events that played out in suburban Atlanta last weekend, the Daily News has learned that another drug may have been part of a deadly cocktail that could have caused Benoit to snap. According to sources familiar with his drug regimen, Benoit was a known abuser of the drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate – or GHB, also known as the “date-rape drug.”
GHB can also be used as a performance-enhancing drug along with steroids. Again, I don’t think Benoit was on the so-called “roid rage”. What he did was methodical. While maybe not in his right mind, I believe he knew what he was doing.
Someone interviewed for the article offers a unique theory.
Trinka Porrata, a retired Los Angeles police detective who is president of the non-profit Project GHB, adds that it is not uncommon for GHB users to add methamphetamine into the mix, and that meth abuse often contributes to bizarre acts involving religion.
“The question everybody asks is, ‘How in the hell could you kill your son?’ Well, in a meth psychosis, your son could be the devil. That can happen quite easily,” says Porrata.
I guess we’ll find out if he’s right when the tox reports come in.
US authorities have dropped an investigation into anonymous Wikipedia entries from America and Australia that posted news of wrestler Chris Benoit’s wife’s murder 14 hours before her body was discovered.
Fayette County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lieutenant Tommy Pope said he could no longer see “any relevance” in investigating the Wikipedia entries.
The parents of Nancy Benoit are saying that their grandson, Daniel Benoit, not only did not have Fragile X Syndrome but didn’t have any kind of medical problem.
The parents of Nancy Benoit were contesting a widely-reported aspect of the case — that Daniel Benoit had an inherted genetic developmental disability.
On Friday, Nancy Benoit’s parents said through their attorney that they were unaware that their grandson had a rare medical condition called Fragile X Syndrome, an inherited form of mental retardation often accompanied by autism.
Atlanta-based lawyer Richard Decker, who represents Paul and Maureen Toffoloni, told ESPN.com’s Elizabeth Merrill that the grandparents babysat often for Daniel and noticed no medical issues.
“To them, he’s always been a normal, healthy, happy child with no signs of illness,” Decker said. “And that’s not from a distance. That’s from day-to-day contact.
This could just be the words of proud grandparents blinded by grief. As the PWTorch article states in an interview that Chris Jericho did, Jericho said that he didn’t know that Daniel had Fragile X Syndrome but once he heard what the syndrome entailed he said that it fit Daniel to a T.
If Chris Benoit killed his family and himself over Daniel’s alleged Fragile X Syndrome, it not only makes him a coward, it also makes him a quitter.
While most wrestlers and ex-wrestlers are saying how surprised they were at Chris Benoit’s actions, Bruce Hart, brother to Bret “The Hitman” Hart and son to the late Stu Hart, is saying that Benoit was crazier than a shithouse rat.
Chris Benoit was a “delusional juice freak” who chased the dark side and had trouble distinguishing between his fictional character and reality, says the man who started him out in professional wrestling.
“The last time I saw him he was in pretty rough shape mentally,” said Bruce Hart, son of the legendary Stu Hart. “I didn’t know all the details but I knew it wasn’t good. I was not at all shocked (by what happened).
Hart will not simplify the shocking murder of Benoit’s wife and 7-year-old son or the eventual suicide of the wrestler by attributing it only to steroid usage. But he truly believes that steroid abuse, in combination with delusional behaviour, painkillers and failing health — “almost all the people we started out with (who did steroids) began breaking down around 40,” Hart said — is a deadly cocktail that needs to be further examined.
“I’ve known too many wrestlers who couldn’t separate the character they play on television from their real life,” said Hart, who has wrestled professionally, promoted wrestling and trained wrestlers all his life.
“Wrestlers start believing their press clippings and what is said on television. It’s like an actor leaving the set but still playing the part. There’s a delusional element to this. I’ve seen it over and over again. Some people can’t separate the character from real life, and Chris was one of those people.
“From my experience, that has been quite prevalent with wrestlers and that becomes exacerbated by steroids, drugs, painkillers and failing health.”
Hart did wonder if Benoit had been given an unfavourable medical report, which may been another factor in his violent behaviour. “A lot of the steroid users start getting liver and kidney problems around the age of 40,” Hart said. “There are a lot of wrestlers out there who are dead that you never heard about whose bodies broke down. I’ve known others who had looming health issues and went a little crazy. Maybe this caused him to go off.”
Which leads me, even more, to believe that this wasn’t the case of “roid rage” that everyone has been wailing about. And that’s why I haven’t been posting about the steroid-related parts of this story.
To me, it’s a non-issue. Steroids may have contributed to what happened, but they weren’t the be all and end all to motive. If that was the case, then wrestlers would be killing people every other week.
(Hey everyone. 2025 Trench here. Bruce Hart is known to stretch the truth according to other wrestlers. So, take what he says with a grain of salt.)
