It was also difficult on Hainstock's father.
Even Hainstock's attorney broke down in tears.
Eric Hainstock was the only one that seemed unfazed by it all.
BARABOO -- An emotional sentencing hearing, just a day after Eric Hainstock was found guilty of killing his school principal, ended the prosecution Friday of the notorious school shooting case.
[Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick] Taggart's decision came after a hearing in which Klang's wife, Sue Klang, and their daughters, Kristi and Kerri, spoke tearfully about the man who was killed by Hainstock's gunfire.
Sue Klang, wearing a T-shirt reading "John Klang is my superhero," said Hainstock took away her high school sweetheart, her best friend and the father of their three children. He has missed family events and milestones such as the graduation of their daughters from college, as well as watching their son play baseball, a sport Klang loved and one she and her husband enjoyed together.
Sue Klang said she left her job as a hospital health education director because she could no longer concentrate on it. And she has had to deal with constant reminders of the tragedy at Weston.
"It's difficult to deal with supporters of Eric who write messages to me telling me that I'm a liar and a poor excuse for a Christian for favoring adult court for Eric," she said, "that I have not suffered an impossible loss and that I should stop spewing my venom and feeling sorry for myself."
Hainstock's fate, she said, "will be a small pittance for the pain that I and those around me have suffered and are still suffering. Everyone who was the victim of John's murder has suffered great anguish and has had problems in even trying to fathom the depth of John's loss."
It's horrible that Sue Klang is being harassed by the freakish supporters of Eric Hainstock.
Those people are truly sick. They aren't the compassionate activists they claim to be. They are demented torturers in their own right.
Rhoda Ricciardi, Hainstock's attorney, tried to get parole for Hainstock after only twenty years, the minimum under state law.
"Nobody knows what Eric is going to be like in 20 years," she said.
No kidding. So what?
Nobody knows what anyone will be like in 20 years. That's no argument for him to be eligible for parole.
Hainstock's sentence is about punishing him for the murder he committed within the last year. He killed John Klang and he has to pay for it now and twenty years from now and after that.
Remember, nobody will ever know what Klang would have been like in 20 years.
The punishment that criminals receive is a reflection of the values of a society.
Hainstock is a sociopath. It's not OK to bring guns to school and kill someone.
His sentence should reinforce that.
...Sue Klang said she has seen no remorse from Hainstock, who ate a sandwich two hours after shooting her husband with his blood still on his hands.
"It's difficult to understand how anyone could be that callous," she said.
But Hainstock's father, Shawn Hainstock said tearfully after the hearing that his son feels remorse and has told him so many times.
"He's broke down crying when I'm talking with him," Shawn Hainstock said. "He's not heartless. People don't know him like we do, maybe. He's a loving boy. Everybody tries to paint a picture that he's evil and he's not."
He expressed his deepest sympathies to the Klang family, but said "We love our son and we have to stand by him, too."
...Eric Hainstock did not speak at the hearing when given the chance.
"He's hurting deep inside," his father said. "He's told me, 'Dad, I don't know how to cry.' I've told him, 'Eric you've got to cry and let some of this out.'"
That's what's so troubling to me. Hainstock showed no remorse.
I would expect Shawn Hainstock to stand up for his son. He can cry and apologize.
But no one can change the reality of what Eric Hainstock did; and what he did was evil.
This next stuff is really weird.
Hainstock's attorney says that being behind bars has helped him.
...Ricciardi said Hainstock's life has, ironically, improved while in custody.
"The scary thing is that since Eric's been in jail, this is the best this boy's ever done in his life," she said. He has learned multiplication tables and improved his reading from a fourth-grade level to handle adult material. She said it has shown how Hainstock, away from his home life and frustration and teasing at school, has thrived with positive reinforcement from his teacher at the jail.
But emotionally, Hainstock is still immature, Ricciardi said, and might not show remorse because his brain is not able to process what he did. When he reaches that point, she said, "the flood gates are going to open. He will live a nightmare."
I don't think Ricciardi should find it scary that Hainstock is finally getting his act together. It sounds like he was scared straight.
Maybe he improved academically because his incarceration meant that he's no longer bullying people or planning to hurt others. Whatever, she makes the case that Hainstock being in custody is a good thing. Since that's the case, let's keep him there.
Her explanation for his lack of remorse is lame. We're supposed to believe that Hainstock is too immature emotionally to really comprehend what he did, but when he does mature, he'll "live a nightmare."
During his testimony, Hainstock said he knew he had done a terrible thing. That was his excuse for telling investigators that he PURPOSELY pulled the trigger three times. His brain was able to "process" enough to understand that shooting someone is wrong and would have consequences. It's not that he didn't get that.
At the hearing, as Klang's wife and daughters expressed the pain of their loss, it's very difficult to have sympathy for the nightmare that Hainstock will live once those "floodgates open" in his head.
And finally we come to Judge Taggart's reasoning behind his sentence for Hainstock.
...Hainstock can ask for release from prison on extended supervision after 30 years, Sauk County Circuit Judge Patrick Taggart said Friday.
Taggart left open the possibility that Hainstock could spend the early years of his sentence at a juvenile correctional facility, where he could receive more intensive treatment and education than he would get in an adult prison.
"I do believe you can be rehabilitated in the correctional system," Taggart told Hainstock. "I do believe it's appropriate to start you at (Ethan Allen School in) Wales or Lincoln Hills."
So Taggart thinks that there's hope for murderer Hainstock.
He thinks that the correctional system can transform the killer, rehabilitate him. Some time in a juvenile facility will give Hainstock the treatment and education he needs; the stuff that John Klang and the faculty at Weston didn't give him.
That's a slap that Klang and the staff at the high school didn't deserve.
Taggart believes his role is to teach Hainstock to learn how to function in society without killing people. The judge prefers to take this opportunity to focus on how to benefit Hainstock rather than mete out justice and punish him for his crimes.
Taggart is approaching this from the standpoint of what's best for Eric.
What about what's best for the Klangs and society?
It appears that the judge wasn't too happy with the jury's decision. It seems he felt that the lesser charges of first- or second-degree reckless homicide would have been more appropriate.
I disagree. The jury didn't get it wrong.
Taggart did.
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