Here's the question:
Should Eric Hainstock be tried as an adult for the murder of Weston High School Principal John Klang, or should Hainstock be waived into juvenile court?
Yesterday was Day 4 of the hearings to determine the answer.
From the Baraboo News Republic, Christina Beam writes:
With the blood of Weston Principal John Klang still on his hands, 15-year-old Eric Hainstock confessed to investigators the morning of Sept. 29 that he meant to pull the trigger when he shot Klang three times at close range, but he did not mean to kill him.
In an hour-long interview taped at 10:30 the morning of the shooting, Hainstock, dressed in the same dark hooded sweatshirt and athletic pants he wore to school that day, sits slumped against the wall. He answers questions about the shooting bluntly and in a matter-of-fact tone.
"It looks like you have some blood on your hands there," Department of Justice Special Agent Elizabeth Feagles notes to him at one point.
"And on my shirt," Hainstock said.
"Can you explain how that happened?" Feagles asked.
"It's blood from the principal," Hainstock said. Then later, he asks, "Can I wash my hands?"
The tape was shown in its entirety in Sauk County court Friday during the fourth day of a hearing on whether Hainstock, now 16, should be waived into juvenile court for the crime or tried as an adult. Judge Patrick Taggart's ruling could mean the difference between Hainstock serving a life sentence or being released back into society at age 25.
Hainstock defense attorney Rhoda Ricciardi objected to the screening of the video in court, saying the detailed transcript should suffice.
But Taggart said it's been reported that Hainstock's expression is "flat" during the confession.
"I believe there are things on the video that I can't see in the transcript," he said.
...In the video time-stamped just a few hours after the shooting, Feagles asked Hainstock if he wanted to kill the principal, and he said no.
"What was this about pulling the trigger?" she asked.
"I just freaked out," he said.
...Earlier in the hearing Friday, Hainstock's special ed teacher James Nowak testified he came out of his classroom and saw Hainstock threatening Klang with the revolver.
...Thompson, heralded as a hero for seizing the shotgun from Hainstock, said he heard Hainstock say, "I'm here to (expletive) kill somebody" when he first came through the doors.
...In the video confession, Hainstock said he only remembered telling school staff to get in the office that morning.
He had planned to "take off" after the incident, he said.
"Do you wish this hadn't happened?" Feagles asked him.
"I don't know," he said. "I'm tired."
Also in the video, Hainstock said that he had complained to Weston officials for years about being bullied and called names.
He thought bringing guns to school would "make them listen."
I don't think there's any question that schools do a horrible job of addressing the bullying problem.
I don't know how Weston handled Hainstock's concerns, but generally speaking, bullying is not taken seriously enough for schools to come down hard on the bullies.
That's inexcusable. The results, in rare cases, can be deadly.
No student should be subjected to torture at school, day in and day out.
That said, no student should bring a gun to school to threaten anyone.
No human being should murder another in cold blood.
Hainstock chose to pull the trigger three times.
A 15-year-old knows that shooting the principal is wrong.
A 15-year-old understands what it means to die.
Hainstock is a sociopath. You can debate on how he got to be an individual capable of murder. You can assign blame and engage in finger-pointing and depict him as abused.
That really doesn't matter.
What matters is there's no question that Hainstock poses a threat to society.
Remember, three shots. That's no accident.
To waive him into juvenile court would be a travesty of justice.
He must be tried as an adult.
Being 15-years-old and being a victim of bullying do not give one license to victimize.
Actions have consequences.
6 comments:
Let us not forget the parents of this child also played a role in what happened.
How guns are so carelessly left around in the homes of Americans is a mystery to me. How a child walks out of the house on the way to school with a loaded shotgun and a loaded handgun baffles me. How parents are so tone deaf to the problems that their child is having BEFORE a violent act of this kind, confuses me. Why we as citizens do not tell the NRA that we have had enough death and violence as a result of their buying politicians, and thereby stopping needed gun legislation from getting passed, is in itself a crime.
I think it is time to hold parents accountable for their children’s actions in cases like this. For instance, if teenagers use a parent’s home for a party where alcohol plays a role in illegal activity, the parent can be liable. When a parent has deadly weapons in a home without being locked up they should also be liable. When a parent has no more sense of what their child is doing with their life other than planning murder with a gun, that parent must face up to their role in the disaster as well. Being a parent is more than just having sex.
Although I agree that it's valid to consider the parents' role, it was Eric Hainstock who chose to pull the trigger THREE times.
Thinking of this child spending the rest of his life in prison breaks my heart. Why did the courts and CPS leave him to be raised by his father after he was charged with felony child abuse? There was no money for medication, no money for therapy. What kind of help did he ever receive? Having to attend school and be bullied everyday. What do we expect out of the child? I hope the judge gets him some help and then gives him a chance to at least have a second chance at life. I know being bullied and poor is no excuse for murder but after being raised like that and then be locked up for the rest of your life....is no life at all. It's heartbreaking!
Yes, it's sad that Hainstock chose to throw his own life away when he took away John Klang's life.
It's heartbreaking that Hainstock murdered John Klang, It was so senseless for Hainstock to cut Klang's life so short. My heart breaks for Klang's family. They must spend the rest of their lives without him.
It's a matter of being out of touch with reality. These kids, it's all so much fantasy role playing even to the point of walking into the school with loaded weapons. Maybe for some even after they start shooting people. But then there has to be a moment of clarity... when they realize that these are life changing choices they are making, and when the game is over they don't get to reset their lives and go home, like they they see their favorite action stars doing. It's the day after hangover and the slamming of cell doors that brings the realization to them that their "choice", if you can it that, means fifty to life. I doubt most kids can comprehend what spending a week in jail is like, much less the rest of the golden era on your life. No proms, no parties, no wives or kids, no privacy, no money of your own, no clothes of your own, no sense of individual accomplishment. Yeah that's prison for you.
But so yeah, where are the parents? Who ever taught this kid that firing on and killing a human is going to ruin your life? You'd think that even a semi concientious firearm owner would have schooled his kids about the terrible consequences guns hide. But especially true while in the hands of the rank amateurs who use them like props in their self made fantasies.
Betcha 99% of these kids realize at the moment of pulling the trigger that what they have done is irrevocably wrong. But then factor in the recreational drugs and alcohol, and these teenagers full of raging hormones have no perspective or rationality.
So where the hell are the parents? Where, where, where?
When Hainstock was on the stand, he talked about his love of hunting and his knowledge of guns. I think he said that he took a safety course when he was 12.
He knew what he was doing.
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