Eric Hainstock has been sentenced to life behind bars with the possibility of parole in 30 years for the shooting death of Weston Schools principal John Klang.
Judge Patrick Taggart said that he considered Hainstock’s age and background before sentencing. He said that he believes the teen can be rehabilitated, WISC-TV reported.
Defense attorneys had requested parole eligibility after 20 years while the state had requested 49 years with the date of eligibility being Sept.29, 2056 — or 50 years after the shooting at Weston Schools, WISC-TV reported.
The jurors who convicted Hainstock said that they focused on the guns and ammunition that he brought to school and the number of shots fired in determining his intent to murder.
Juror Brian Ludolph, of Prairie du Sac, said on Friday the fact numerous shots were fired by Hainstock convinced them the student intended to kill Klang. Ludolph said that Hainstock bringing the guns and ammunition to school also played into their finding of intent.
Juror Diana Mielke, of North Freedom, said that the jury was initially split on whether Hainstock intended to kill Klang.
Mielke said that she was initially among the six who thought Hainstock didn’t have intent to kill, but changed her mind after recalling Hainstock’s lack of emotion during the trial.
Thankfully, there was a jury with common sense who recognized Hainstock’s intent and weren’t fooled by his lies.
Justice has been served.
While you’re at WISC’s website, take the poll and let them know how you feel about the verdict and sentence. You can probably guess how I voted.
Not only was Eric Hainstock found guilty in the shooting death of principal John Klang, he was also convicted on the first-degree intentional homicide charge. He’s looking at life in prison.
Here we go. Now we get to see how rough poor widdle Eric Hainstock had it.
On the morning of the shooting, Hainstock testified, he awoke feeling tired of being picked on at school and said to himself, “I have to get all of this to stop.”
At school, he was stuffed into lockers, had his head dunked into toilets and was called a “fag” by his classmates, he said. As a result of the bullying, he attempted suicide three times.
His classmates’ comments “cut a little deeper,” he said, because at the age of 6, he was sexually molested by his 12-year-old stepbrother. He kept the alleged assaults a secret, he said.
Hainstock’s father, Shawn Hainstock, cried as his son testified.
Wait a minute. I thought his father was an abusive ogre who didn’t care about his son.
When he came home from school, Hainstock said, his parents forced him to do most of the housework. When he failed to do so, he was disciplined.
Hainstock testified that his father often kicked him and also used a wooden board called “the board of education” to spank him.
He said his father also refused to provide him with medication to help curb his attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Yeah, like that. If they were as poor as everyone is making them out to be, they more than likely would have been eligible for government assistance, where the medication would have cost them next to nothing. Not to mention the fact that ADD and ADHD are probably the most misdiagnosed and over-diagnosed conditions of the modern medical age, in my opinion. And which one is it that makes the kids go crazy? Is it being on meds or not being on meds? I forget, since I’ve seen both used as criminal defenses.
After loading his father’s 20-gauge shotgun and .22-caliber revolver, he drove to school, hoping he could force Klang to listen to his problems, he said.
Again, no reason to load the guns if his intent was to scare, which it wasn’t. Not only that, but what made him think that taking two guns to school to threaten people with wasn’t going to land him in jail. Did he think that miraculously all his problems would disappear and there would be no repercussions to his actions? What a dumbass.
When he entered the school, he screamed, “Everyone get in the office. I’m not f—ing kidding!”
He said he didn’t get flustered when the school’s maintenance man, David Thompson, was able to grab the shotgun out of his hand. Hainstock said he reacted by pulling the handgun out of his pants.
That sounds strangely like the characteristics of a cold-blooded killer to me. He’s lucky that Mr. Thompson didn’t blow him away right then and there.
When Klang turned the corner, Hainstock testified, he pointed the gun at him and said, “I ain’t going to do nothing … let’s go to the office, I want to talk.”
Hainstock said Klang agreed to talk to him in his office, but as they walked there, Klang grabbed him and the gun went off accidentally.
“The gun was caught in the clothing of my arm and when he pulled my arm it went off,” Hainstock testified.
He said he then aimed the gun at Klang’s arm and fired “so he would let go of him.”
After an accidental third shot fired, Hainstock said he was in shock.
“I didn’t think Mr. Klang was going to die … I hoped not,” Hainstock said. “I didn’t plan to hurt nobody.”
“The gun was caught in the clothing of my arm and when he pulled my arm it went off,” How in the hell would he have to be holding the gun for that to possibly happen?
The last witness to testify was Hainstock’s grandmother, Irene Hainstock, who said Eric called her from jail after his arrest.
“What have you done,” she recalled asking her grandson. “I don’t know, grandma. Something snapped in my head,” was the response.
Some more students…
Other defense witnesses included five students at Weston who saw Eric enter the school with a shotgun and saw it taken away from him. None remembered hearing him say, “I’m here to (expletive) kill somebody,” as one witness recalled.
On cross-examination, however, most said they weren’t sure they could hear everything that was being said that day.
Now let’s hear from Hainstock himself…
In his own testimony, Hainstock said he brought the shotgun and pistol to the school to make people listen to him and did not intend to kill Klang.
Hainstock said he needed the weapons — a 20-gauge shotgun and a .22-caliber revolver — “because they would be scared,” he said, referring to people at the school. “If they were scared they’d listen, hopefully.”
Hainstock, 16, testified unemotionally as the first witness in the defense case after prosecutors rested their case Wednesday morning.
Mounting frustration with his home life and with persistent taunting at school led him to the desperate action, he said, which he said was not intended to hurt anyone.
But after Klang grabbed him from behind at the school, Hainstock testified, the gun went off.
“It was accidental,” he said. He heard a grunt from Klang, he said, who continued to hold him. Hainstock said a second shot, which struck Klang on the side of the head but did not penetrate his skull, was intended for Klang’s arm, to get Klang to let go of him.
Hainstock said he underestimated the lethal power of the .22.
“I didn’t think it would hurt nobody that bad because it was so little,” he said.
I don’t buy any of it. According to this article, when asked by his attorney why Hainstock loaded the weapons he said it was “just a reaction.” Loading two separate weapons is not a reaction. That’s intent. And what did he think the .22 would do? Just bounce off people? And what if the shotgun was not taken from him. Did he think that a shotgun “wouldn’t hurt nobody?”
Anything less than a conviction of first-degree murder is a travesty of justice.
The videotaped statement that Eric Hainstock gave to investigators was shown to the jury yesterday.
The video, filmed just hours after the Sept. 29 shooting, shows Hainstock slouched in a Sauk County Sheriff’s Department interview room with Klang’s blood on his clothes. He tells detectives that he complained to Klang for three years about kids teasing him and calling him a “fag,” but that Klang did nothing to stop them.
That morning after his parents left their home, he says in the video, he “was still ticked off” at various students and the principal.
According to the criminal complaint, Hainstock, then a 15-year-old freshman, went to school outside Cazenovia, about 65 miles northwest of Madison, with a shotgun and a revolver.
A janitor tore the shotgun away, and Hainstock pulled out the revolver, cocked it and got ready to fire, he tells detectives in the video.
Hainstock was well-trained in firearms. You don’t cock the hammer on a gun unless you have full intentions of using it.
He says Klang came toward him and asked him, ‘What’s going on?’”
“I’m like, ‘I’m sick of you guys,’” he says in the interview.
He ordered Klang into an office, and as they turned to walk there, Klang jumped him, Hainstock says. He stuck his pistol under Klang’s left armpit and fired three times, he says. Klang later died.
“I just freaked out,” Hainstock says.
Yet multiple witnesses have testified that they heard Hainstock say he was there to kill someone. To me, cocking the gun definitely shows intent. If he wanted to scare someone, he could have just pointed an empty gun at them. But no, Hainstock went in there with two different loaded weapons with multiple rounds available for reloading.
He was planning on a massacre. He didn’t freak out. He probably realized that when John Klang went for his gun that it was probably the only chance he was going to get for revenge. John Klang probably saved a lot of lives that fateful day.
From special needs teacher James Nowak who had a metal stapler thrown at him by Hainstock.
During testimony Monday afternoon in a Baraboo courtroom, teacher James Nowak recounted his own rising sense of tension with Hainstock, beginning with an incident on Sept, 14. That day, he said, Hainstock threw a metal stapler at him, narrowly missing his head and chipping the wall. When he returned to the classroom with Klang and Buildings and Grounds Director Phillip Rachuj, they found Hainstock holding a chair.
“He had a chair above his head and he looked like he was going to swing it at us,” said Nowak.
Rachuj was able to take the chair from Hainstock, and he was suspended from school for three days.
Apparently, someone fashions himself as Stone Cold Steve Austin. Well, Trench 3:16 says your ass is going to prison.
From Angela Young, the guidance counselor at Weston Schools…
She said Hainstock was a boy who sought attention, enjoyed playing the victim and often placed blame for his actions on others. Young said he was often teased by other students, but he picked on them in return.
Young testified that she was in the hall when Hainstock walked into the school but said she could not see him because of the decorations. She testified she heard Hainstock say “I’m going to (expletive) kill somebody.”
You can’t play the bullying card when you’re a bully yourself. Then again, this whole incident was never about bullying. It’s about a selfish and self-absorbed punk kid who wanted to exact his revenge on a man who cared enough to actually discipline Hainstock.
Two members of the staff of Weston Schools testified that Eric Hainstock declared his intention to kill before shooting Principal John Klang.
Custodian Dave Thompson testified he was talking with assistant football coach and social studies teacher Chuck Keller before school when they saw Hainstock walking across the parking lot with a shotgun raised.
Thompson said the teacher asked the 15-year-old freshman what he was doing with a gun in school and Hainstock replied, ‘”I’m here to (expletive) kill somebody.” ‘ He then pointed the gun barrel to within inches of Keller’s face.
Thompson ripped the gun away from him, telling him, “No, not in my school,” he recalled. Hainstock then reached into his pocket, Thompson said.
Fearing the boy had another gun, Thompson ran outside with the shotgun, telling Keller to run.
After Thompson had taken the shotgun, Keller said that he tried to corner Hainstock in the entryway, but that the boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a .22 revolver.
Notice that Hainstock didn’t say that he was there to (expletive) scare someone.
Keller also testified about the character of Hainstock…
Keller testified he had Hainstock in class a year earlier. The boy was disruptive, touching other students and heckling him during his lectures, Keller said.
Hainstock was equal parts victim and instigator, he said, but the shenanigans didn’t seem serious.
If the kid was a loudmouth and an attention seeker, he probably brought any alleged bullying on himself. But again, none of his alleged abusers were his target, only John Klang was.
Today was the opening day in the trial of Eric Hainstock. He’s accused of the shooting death of Weston Schools principal John Klang.
The defense is trying the argument that Hainstock only meant to scare John Klang.
Hainstock’s attorney, Rhoda Ricciardi, told jurors they should not convict him of first-degree murder because his actions were not intentional, but reckless. She said he told police he only meant to scare people.
She said Hainstock was upset with kids calling him a “fag.” Ricciardi said his stepbrother sexually abused him when Hainstock was 6, and that his father abused him and refused to give him medication for attention deficit disorder.
This is the first I’ve heard of claims of sexual abuse, but again Hainstock did not strike back at the people who allegedly abused him. He shot and killed someone who was actually trying to help him.
The prosecution remains unfazed…
District Attorney Pat Barrett maintained that Hainstock’s anger toward Klang had been building for two weeks before homecoming.
She noted Klang kicked Hainstock out of school for three days after Hainstock threw a stapler at his special education teacher. Klang also gave Hainstock an in-school suspension after Klang found chewing tobacco in the boy’s backpack.
Pointing her finger at jurors like a pistol, Barrett also pledged they would hear statements Hainstock gave to investigators in which he said he pulled the trigger on Klang on purpose and testimony from a school janitor who heard Hainstock say he was at the school to kill someone.
Barrett also said Hainstock brought 50 cartridges for the revolver to school.
Do 50 rounds of ammunition sound like he was just trying to scare someone? Let’s not forget that Hainstock also brought a shotgun to the school as well, even though the shotgun was taken away by a school custodian. Fear was not Hainstock’s objective. Death was.
Librarian Kay Amborn testified today that Eric Hainstock took pride in his throwing a metal stapler at special needs teacher James Nowak.
Librarian Kay Amborn testified Friday that Hainstock, 16, seemed “proud” a week later on Sept. 21 when he saw a story about the incident published in the Reedsburg Independent, showed it to several other students and asked Amborn to make a copy of it for him. She declined.
“He said he wanted a copy for his dad, because his dad didn’t get the newspaper,” Amborn testified.
The stapler incident is what led to Hainstock being suspended by Klang, which is what prosecutors believe that led to Hainstock shooting Klang. I tend to agree.
A judge has ruled that the attempted murder charge recently alleged against Eric Hainstock will not be considered.
The judge rejected the additional charge, saying it would violate Hainstock’s right to a fair trial and would be prejudicial. He also cited concerns that Hainstock’s defense wouldn’t have time to prepare a defense against the charge, with the trial set to begin in under a week.
I thought the charge was frivolous anyway. Just pointing a gun at someone is not attempted murder. The prosecution does not need to get creative right now. Hainstock shot principal John Klang in front of multiple witnesses. The prosecution needs to play it safe and just get the murder conviction.
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.
