TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: school shooting

  • Opening day of Hainstock trial

    Opening Statements in Principal Shooting:

    Today was the opening day in the trial of Eric Hainstock. He’s accused in 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: Hainstock seemed “proud” of violent incident weeks before shooting:
    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.

  • No additional charges for Hainstock

    No new charges for teen accused of killing principal:

    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.

  • Hainstock may face additional charge

    Teen may face another charge:

    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.

    The trial is set to start on July 26th.

  • Bartley’s plea appeal rejected

    UPDATE: Judge refuses to overturn Kenneth Bartley plea deal:

    Yesterday Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood rejected the motion for the Campbell County High School shooter, Kenny Bartley Jr., to withdraw his guilty plea.

    When the Judge Blackwood announced his decision, the courtroom filled with applause.

    That says a lot, doesn’t it? Not only that but the lawyer that helped him reach the deal testified against Bartley.

    Mike Hatmaker, Bartley’s former attorney who helped broker the plea deal testified the 15-year old knew what he was getting into.

    “He wanted to do this. Absolutely,” says Hatmaker.

    District Attorney General Paul Phillips asked during Monday’s proceeding, “Any question in your mind?”

    “No,” replied Hatmaker.

    Now a question that makes no sense from his new attorney…

    According to his new defense attorney, Bruce Poston, the teen didn’t completely understand them before taking the offer.

    Poston says, “On March 25th you turned down a deal that was 25 years for second degree murder and 10 years and 10 years for attempted second degree murder.”

    Bartley replied, “Yes sir.”

    “On April 10th you said I’ll take the deal. Why?,” asked Poston.

    Bartley answered, “I was scared cause I was looking at two life sentences.”

    It sounds like he understood exactly what he was doing. That’s why people take pleas, to avoid longer sentences.

    Bartley has 30 days to appeal. I’m sure there will be an appeal and I’m sure that one will be rejected too.

  • Duck pond search fruitless

    Duck pond search fruitless

    Search of Tech duck pond turns up nothing:

    The search of a drained duck pond at Virginia Tech turned up no clues behind the massacre perpetrated by Cho Seung Hui.

    Corinne Geller of the state police says divers worked in shifts from Tuesday to yesterday evening, searching through three feet of muck with a metal detector and their hands. She calls “an exhausting search.”

    She said the divers weren’t looking for anything specific, but were doing a more thorough investigation of a student’s report that someone resembling Seung-Hui Cho (sung-wee joh) was near the pond between the time he killed two students in a dormitory and 30 people in a classroom building on April 16th.

    The hard drive from Cho’s computer is still among the missing.

  • Lesser Charge

    Lesser Charge

    New Attorney Moves to Withdraw School Shooter’s Guilty Plea:

    Kenny Bartley’s new attorney has made some changes about withdrawing his guilty plea.

    Kenneth Bartley Jr.’s new attorney has taken the next step toward withdrawing his client’s guilty plea.

    Bruce Poston has amended a motion filed by Bartley’s old attorney explaining why the plea should be withdrawn.

    Included in the motion, arguments made previously that Bartley Jr.’s parents didn’t consent to the plea.

    And new arguments that Bartley didn’t know lesser convictions could carry lesser punishments.

    Poston also argues that Bartley Jr.’s former attorney Mike Hatmaker pressured Bartley Jr. to accept the last-minute deal without consulting with anyone, especially his parents.

    What lesser charge? Jaywalking? Truancy? Leaving a flaming bag of dog crap on someone’s doorstep? He killed a man, for crying out loud. And personally, I don’t think his parents should be consulted as far as a plea agreement goes.

    He made the choice to shoot and kill Ken Bruce, so then he alone should make the choice of whether or not he wants to take a plea.

    The way I see it, either the sentence will stand or they’ll go back to trial and Bartley will be convicted and sentenced to even more time.

  • Va. Tech Duck Pond

    Va. Tech Duck Pond

    State Police to search Virginia Tech duck pond for evidence:

    The Virginia State Police will be checking a drained duck pond at Virginia Tech in hopes of finding more evidence about the Virginia Tech massacre.

    State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller won’t say what investigators might be looking for. She says they’re following leads and looking for any potential evidence. Once the water drains, teams will conduct grid searches looking for anything that might be beneath the water.

    It’s been theorized that they are looking for the missing hard drive that Cho took from his computer.

  • We let him down

    We let him down

    Parents argue for juvenile justice in school shooting:

    The parents of Thomas White, the accused gunman at the Memorial Middle School shooting, have called for leniency in the treatment of their son.

    Norma and Greg White also blame themselves, saying they should have listened to their son when he repeatedly said how much he disliked school and asked to be home-schooled.

    Instead, Thomas White, 14, is facing being tried as an adult on multiple felonies and his father is serving an 18-month sentence for illegal possession of firearms in the family’s home.

    “He’s a good kid, and we let him down,” Greg White told the newspaper.

    Ya think? But you didn’t let him down by not homeschooling him. You let him down by having unsecured firearms in the house.

    The big deal is that Thomas white is charged as an adult for bringing an assault rifle to school, discharging a round into the ceiling, and pointing the gun at the principal and pulling the trigger. Luckily, the gun jammed.

    “He needs punishment,” Greg White said. “We believe in the rule of the law.”

    Says the convicted ex-felon in illegal possession of a firearm.

    The Whites said they’ve looked at past cases involving school shootings and can’t find another example of a juvenile certified to be tried as an adult when it didn’t involve any deaths or injuries.

    They either don’t read this site or didn’t look too hard. In Michigan, Andrew Osantowski was 16 at the time of his arrest and was tried and sentenced as an adult, and he didn’t even bring the guns to school.

    Sorry, but there’s no compassion here. He made a conscious choice to take a gun to school with the intent to kill. Only by the grace of God was no one hurt or killed.

  • No drugs in Cho

    No drugs in Cho

    Police say toxicology tests show no drugs in Seung-Hui Cho’s system:

    According to the Virginia State Police, the toxicology test performed on Cho Seung-Hui revealed that there were no drugs, prescription or otherwise, in his system. I doubt that will silence the Luddites though, who claim that antidepressants are responsible for every single school shooting.

    The autopsy confirmed that Cho did, in fact, take the coward’s way out by shooting himself in the head.

  • The voices

    The voices

    Oregon judge expects ruling on new Kinkel trial within 30 days:

    There is more drama on the appeal of Kip Kinkel’s conviction, and it’s starting to sound slightly familiar.

    Two of the mental health experts involved in the case now say they should have recommended the evaluation, based on their lengthy interviews with Kinkel as a teenager.

    Dr. Orin Bolstad, a clinical psychologist, and Dr. William Sack, a psychiatrist, testified Tuesday for Kinkel, arguing that he showed “classic signs” of paranoid schizophrenia, hearing voices and suffering delusions and hallucinations.

    Bolstad and Sack say they believe his original attorneys should have raised the insanity defense instead of choosing the plea bargain.

    Sack and Bolstad said Kinkel had become skilled at hiding his illness because he desperately wanted to appear normal and was too young to understand what was happening to him, fearing he would be labeled “retarded” — even though tests have shown him to be highly intelligent.

    Kinkel’s new attorney, Larry Matasar, argued that any teenager who told doctors he was having paranoid delusions that he believed the Walt Disney Co. was trying to take over the world and that the government had implanted a computer chip in his brain — as Kinkel did — clearly was suffering from mental illness.

    But his constant reference to hearing voices that made his life “a living hell” since the sixth grade should have put his attorneys and the judge on notice that a mental competency evaluation was needed, Matasar said.

    “This young man was seriously ill,” Matasar said, “and it was during this time that his attorneys gave him the plea offer.”

    Being able to “hide” paranoid schizophrenia reminds me of the trial of another school shooter, John Jason McLaughlin.

    He tried arguing that he heard voices, had hallucinations, and that he could hide his illness. That jury didn’t buy it and by all accounts, it sounded like the only illness he had been I’m-a-big-faker-ophrenia. Which is what it sounds like Kip Kinkel has too.

    Did the “voices” tell him to amass an illegal weapons cache for months prior to the murders or use explosives on animals? I seriously doubt it.

    On Wednesday, the state offered testimony from a forensic psychologist, Dr. Eric Johnson, and a veteran Eugene trial attorney, Kelly Beckley, supporting Kinkel attorneys Richard Mullen and Mark Sabitt, along with the trial judge, Lane County Circuit Judge Jack Mattison.

    Johnson said there was no indication from any mental health expert in the case — including the two defense experts — that Kinkel was incompetent because of his mental illness.

    “In my opinion, they have presented a thoughtful and elegant theory, but they have pointed to no discernible evidence that I’m aware of,” Johnson said.

    Beckley said Mullen and Sabitt, whom he has known for years, are both experienced criminal attorneys who have dealt with mentally ill clients, while Mattison took “extraordinary” steps to ensure that Kinkel understood all 58 counts of the plea bargain when it was read in court.

    Beckley noted the judge said in an affidavit that he would have stopped the proceedings if he had any doubt at all about Kinkel’s competence.

    The fact that this appeal is even going on is a disgrace.

    The judge will rule within 30 days.