MANITOWOC, Wis. (Court TV) — Defense attorneys for a Wisconsin man on trial blamed the defendant’s teenage son for the death of a 7-year-old boy in his care.
Timothy Hauschultz stands in court on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Court TV)
Timothy Hauschultz, 56, has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including neglect of a child resulting in death, contributing to the delinquency of a child where death is a consequence and being a party to the crime of physical abuse of a child, in connection with his great-nephew’s death in April 2018.
Ethan Hauschultz, 7, had been placed in the defendant’s care, along with his twin brother, A.H., and their younger sister. The three siblings moved in with Timothy Hauschultz, who lived with his wife, Tina Hauschultz, and their two children, C.H. and Damian Hauschultz, then 14.
In her opening statement to the jury on Tuesday, Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre said that when the children misbehaved at home, they would be forced to carry large blocks of wood along a triangular path in the property’s backyard. “There was really no purpose to the punishment,” LaBre said. “It wasn’t like moving a woodpile to somewhere else; it was just walking in this pattern with these heavy objects outside.”
“The state says, ‘Well, what’s the purpose of wood carrying?'” Timothy Hauschultz’s attorney, Donna Keuchler, said in her address to the jury. “Well, what’s the purpose of any discipline a parent involves? What’s the purpose of sitting in a corner or standing in a corner or sitting in your room without toys or games? Or grounding somebody—what’s the purpose? The purpose is to say, ‘Hey, there’s a consequence if you’re not going to follow the rules of the house.'”
LaBre said the logs were too heavy for children to carry as punishment. Ethan, who weighed 62 pounds and stood 4 feet 8 inches at the time of his death, had to carry a 44-pound log. LaBre said Timothy Hauschultz dictated the punishment and chose which child carried which log.
On April 20, 2018, LaBre said Timothy Hauschultz and his wife went to run errands and left Damian in charge. LaBre said Damian had been specifically tasked with ensuring Ethan and A.H. carried wood for the two hours they’d been assigned. That day, snow covered the ground after a spring storm, and rising temperatures made it slushy and wet.
Damian Hauschultz (Wisconsin Department of Corrections)
LaBre said that at some point, Ethan fell and stopped walking with the log, leading Damian to poke and prod him to move. When the 7-year-old remained still, “he took it to the next level,” LaBre said. “They started putting snow on him. … Damian described this to law enforcement as a kind of a ‘snow coffin.’ That’s the word he used.”
While investigators have said Timothy Hauschultz encouraged Damian to enforce the punishments, Keuchler said the teenager was acting on his own. At one point, Damian called the defendant to say that Ethan was refusing to walk, and Timothy Hauschultz’s instructions to his son were “leave it alone,” Keuchler said. “But Damian didn’t leave it alone. He didn’t listen to what Tim told him and continued to poke and prod, apparently, this poor child.”
“The state has twisted what happened here to make Tim look like some sort of monster,” Keuchler said to the jury. “Tim did not murder his great-nephew. Damian did.”
Timothy Hauschultz tried twice to plead guilty, but a judge rejected the proposed plea agreement both times.
Damian, now 22, pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. According to prison records, he will be eligible for release in 2040.
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