Teen gets 20 years in death of 7-year-old Wisconsin boy

MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin teenager has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in the death of a 7-year-old relative who was beaten, forced to carry a 44-pound log and buried in the snow before he died.

Damian Hauschultz, 17, of Mishicot, pleaded guilty in June to first-degree reckless homicide in the 2018 death of Ethan Hauschultz. After serving his prison time, he will be on extended supervision for another 10 years, WLUK-TV reported.

According to the criminal complaint, Damian’s father, Timothy Hauschultz, ordered the young boy punished for not knowing 13 Bible verses, and he told Damian, who was 14 at the time, to carry it out. The father faces trial in December. His wife, Tina McKeever-Hauschultz, is already serving five years.

“My goal is to ensure that you are incarcerated for just long enough to mature, and develop, to work on education, to work on treatment, work on controlling that angry side,” Manitowoc County Circuit Court Judge Jerilyn Dietz said as she sentenced Damian Hauschultz as an adult Thursday.

Damian’s parents were the court-appointed guardians for Ethan, who was Timothy Hauschultz’s great-nephew.

According to the criminal complaint, Ethan’s punishment was to carry the log around a path for two hours a day for one week and Damian supervised. It said Ethan “struggled to carry his log” and Damian did “hit, kick, strike and poke Ethan approximately 100 times.”

The complaint goes on to say Damian also stood on Ethan’s “body and head” while he was “face-down in a puddle.” The complaint also alleges Damian buried Ethan in about “80 pounds of packed snow” where he was left for about 20 to 30 minutes without a coat or boots. Ethan died of hypothermia, but also had extensive other injuries,

Ethan’s mother, Andrea Everett, told the court that Damian was out of excuses.

“I’ve listened to people in this courtroom blame your parents for the reason why you’ve killed my son, I’ve listened to people talk about the trauma that you have gone through. We’ve all gone through trauma. But it doesn’t mean that we brutally kill a 7-year-old,” Everett said.

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