Defense: Teen Didn't Mean To Kill His Principal

BARABOO, Wis. (AP) _ A 16-year-old charged with shooting his high school principal to death didn't mean to kill him, and had brought two guns to school only to scare people, his attorney said Friday

Friday, July 27th 2007, 1:59 pm

By: News On 6

BARABOO, Wis. (AP) _ A 16-year-old charged with shooting his high school principal to death didn't mean to kill him, and had brought two guns to school only to scare people, his attorney said Friday at his murder trial.

The prosecution, however, said during opening statements that Eric Hainstock's anger at Weston Schools Principal John Klang had been building. District Attorney Pat Barrett promised jurors would hear testimony that Hainstock told friends at least twice that Klang wouldn't survive homecoming.

Hainstock is charged with killing Klang on Sept. 29, the morning homecoming festivities were set to begin. Investigators say Hainstock took a shotgun and a revolver to school because he was upset Klang and teachers hadn't stopped other kids from teasing him.

According to a criminal complaint, after a custodian took the shotgun from Hainstock, the student took out the revolver and Klang, 49, rushed him. Hainstock shot Klang three times before the dying principal wrestled him to the ground and pushed the gun away, the complaint said.

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.

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.

If convicted, Hainstock could face life in prison. His attorneys have not suggested a lesser charge, but a count of reckless homicide would carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

Hainstock's attorneys lost an effort to transfer his case to juvenile system, where he could receive treatment and be freed at age 25.

Weston Schools is in Cazenovia, about 65 miles northwest of Madison.