Hainstock Pleads Not Guilty In Principal Shooting:
Shocking absolutely no one, Eric Hainstock has pleaded not guilty to shooting his principal John Klang.
I’m anxiously awaiting the defense’s explanation for the not guilty plea. I think they have a false sense of security from the vocal minority who think that Hainstock is the victim in all this.
If he pleaded guilty and took responsibility for his actions he may have received the help that some think he needs.
Judge: Hainstock To Be Tried As Adult:
Judge Patrick Taggart has ruled that Eric Hainstock, the teen accused of gunning down Weston Schools Principal John Klang, will be tried as an adult.
Judge Patrick Taggart said that Hainstock’s attorneys didn’t prove that moving his murder trial to juvenile court wouldn’t diminish the seriousness of his crime.
Taggart said that evidence showed Hainstock planned to go to Weston Schools with guns and told a janitor that he was there to kill someone.
The judge told the defense lawyers that they only succeeded in meeting one of the three criteria to move the case to juvenile court, WISC-TV reported.
Of course, the defense is not happy.
Hainstock’s attorney Rhoda Ricciardi said that the teen will rot away in prison. She said that therapy he would have received at juvenile facility could have helped him.
What’s your point lady?
Hainstock is now looking at life behind bars.
Psychologist: Klang May Have Made Things Worse:
A principal hailed as a hero for rushing a student gunman and disarming him despite being fatally wounded may have sealed his own fate by touching the boy, a psychologist testified Thursday.
Eric Hainstock can’t control his emotional reactions to even the smallest slight and can’t think rationally when he’s attacked, juvenile psychologist Michael Caldwell said. The volatile 16-year-old has shown a pattern of growing more agitated when people touch him, Caldwell said.
And people want him to back out on the streets by the time he’s 25? That’s laughable. Hainstock is violent and unstable and I doubt very much that he’s capable of rehabilitation.
Pal: Teen who shot principal was abused:
The sob stories about Eric Hainstock continue…
Officials did nothing to stop students from teasing Eric Hainstock despite complaints, a friend testified Wednesday at a hearing to determine whether adult charges should stand in the shooting death of the teenagers’ school principal.
Other kids called Hainstock names and pushed and punched him for being messy and smelling bad, said Morgan Gudenschwager, a 15-year-old eighth-grader who described himself as Hainstock’s best friend. Hainstock, who could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted on adult charges, told Gudenschwager his parents wouldn’t let him shower at home.
And here’s some gratitude for you…
But under cross-examination, Gudenschwager said Hainstock talked “once in a while” about how he hated Klang, even though Klang bought him clothes and let him shower at school so he wouldn’t smell. He also said Hainstock often instigated confrontations with other students and dished out his share of bullying.
And what did John Klang get for his charity? A bullet that cost him his life.
Hainstock is an obvious danger and should never see the light of day. Hell, prison would probably be like a vacation for him. At least he’ll get meals and showers.
Grandmother: Accused shooter considerate child:
Here is some courtroom theatrics for you.
In a hearing to see if Weston High School shooter, Eric Hainstock, will be tried as an adult his grandmother testified on his behalf.
Irene Hainstock was pushed up to the stand in a wheelchair and, with a gray bun and a white crocheted blanket on her lap, gave teary testimony about her relationship with her grandson and his troubled upbringing. Hainstock sat unmoved throughout her testimony.
“He’s always been a loving child” he showed affection very easily and he was very talkative,” she said. “He liked to talk, and grandma listened.”
His very early childhood, spent in Reedsburg with parents Shawn and Lisa Hainstock, was relatively normal, Irene Hainstock said. It was when he was three or four and his father remarried to Pricella Hainstock that things became “not the best,” she said.
The Hainstock home on Bird Drive in La Valle was unkempt with multiple dogs that Pricella was raising in the home, she said.
Once Shawn Hainstock said to his wife, “I think you love the dogs more than you love Eric,” Irene Hainstock testified. “She said, ‘Maybe I do.” Hearing that felt “terrible,” she said. “He’s my grandson.”
In his older childhood years he began to be “terribly nervous and jumpy and flustered,” Irene Hainstock said, and was prescribed Ritalin. In the fall of 2001, when Eric was 10, he went to live with his grandmother for several months.
Even after he returned home, he would bike the three miles to his grandmother’s home and seemed to seek refuge in their relationship, she said.
“Like any teenager, I think he resented Pricella’s authority over him,” she said. “He always came to grandma.”
When he would complain about being bullied at school, the advice she would give him, Irene Hainstock said, was “trying to get along, forgive.”
What does Hainstock’s home life have to do with killing John Klang? After all, he didn’t murder his stepmother.
The prosecution seems to be unfazed.
After Hainstock had testified that her grandson was locked in a locker at school, held by his ankles with his head in a toilet by another student and told by a teacher that he wouldn’t “be (at school) long if I have anything to say about it,” District Attorney Patricia Barrett asked what she had done to intervene.
Irene Hainstock said she thought that was Eric’s parents’ job.
“So it didn’t worry you enough to go past his parents to protect your grandson and tell the school?” Barrett asked. “It seemed to have stuck in your memory, but it didn’t seem to bother you enough to report it.”
“Like I said,” Hainstock said, “I thought his parents would take care of it.”
Barrett said a school report showed Eric had instigated the incident with the toilet, and earlier had threatened other students, brought to school both powdered calcium he said was cocaine and a mixture of Kool-Aid and cough syrup he said was blood.
In the spring of eighth grade, Barrett said, Eric threw a chair in choir class and grabbed his teacher by her arm until it was numb while screaming profanities. Irene Hainstock said she wasn’t aware of any of those incidents.
But he’s the victim? I don’t think so.
Terror charge too much, teen’s attorney says:
Brent Clark’s attorney is bemoaning the terrorism charge and the fact that Clark is being tried as an adult.
David Michael Cantor, the teen suspect’s attorney, said he has several concerns with this case.
One of them is the county attorney’s decision to try Brent Clark as an adult. Another concern is charging him with terrorism.
“I think it’s an insult to add a terrorism charge in this day and age to a case like this — a 14-year-old boy. That’s just politicking at the lowest level,” Cantor said.
“With adult charges, he may never get into college, or a dormitory, they would ruin him simply because of an emotional problem,” Cantor said.
Cantor describes his client as a good kid who was the victim of intense bullying at school. He said it was a cry for help and not an act of terrorism.
College? Emotional problem? He held a girl at knifepoint. That’s not an emotional problem. That’s an act of violence. As far as worrying about college, he should have thought of that before committing a crime.
If Mr. Cantor had any sense he’d tell his client to plead out and he may avoid serious jail time.
Mom says teen accused in school terror plot is victim of bullying:
The mother of Brent Clark is saying that her son was bullied. I wonder what took her so long.
“What the public does not know is that we have discovered that he has been bullied at school for almost a year,” Danette Reed said. “No one is willing to investigate that allegation.”
That’s all well and good but what does Clark being bullied have to do with trying to take a girl hostage at knifepoint? Why did he want to kill a girl who barely knew him?
Mesa victim speaks out about attack:
The girl who Brent Clark tried to take hostage has spoken to the media.
A 7th grade girl walks home alone and when she gets to her apartment complex she said she was attacked by a classmate with a pocketknife.
“He said he was going to kill me if I say anything,” said the girl who didn’t want to be identified.
The boy let her go and she ran home and called police.
But since that day two weeks ago she’s been getting sick, loosing weight and this week didn’t go to school.
She claims it’s just something she ate, but her mom thinks its something else, a bad case of nerves.
The accused attacker was a classmate. Clark and the girl had 7th hour Spanish together.
As for girl who was attacked, she believes the boy might have done it, but she doesn’t feel like a hero.
She just wants her old life back.
As usual the victim had very little connection with the attacker.
For added fun we have some attorney hilarity.
The lawyer for Clark said charging him with terrorism goes way too far.
Something that could ruin his life instead of teach him a lesson. He calls it politicking by the prosecutor’s office.
Well, maybe he should have thought of that before he tried to kidnap that girl. And instead of teaching just him a lesson hopefully this will teach a lesson to other kids who have similar ideas.
County Attorney Defends Charge against Mesa Teen:
The County attorney who decided to charge Brent Clark as an adult is having to defend his stance on the charges.
“I thought that was the appropriate charge,” Thomas said. “How it ends being handled by the courts and what penalties are ultimately given to this alleged offender will be determined at a later date.”
I agree. In order to try to prevent crimes like this from happening in the future, we have to let these kids know that there are serious and life-altering repercussions.