The victim of July 12th's beating in Freeport has died

Posted: Fri, Aug 31, 2018 1:14 PM

Funeral services are pending for 46-year-old Dave Hansen of Decorah, who died Friday at Gundersen Health Systems in LaCrosse.

Hansen was the victim July 12th of what police officers described as a "brutal" beating at his home in Freeport. 18-year-old Dalton Adam of Waukon and 17-year-old Jacob Seelinger of Decorah now face charges of Attempted Murder in connection with the assault.

The two are being held in the Winneshiek County Jail. With the death of Hansen, it is expected the "attempted murder" charges will be changed. Iowa law defines 1st degree murder as killing another person with express or implied "malice aforethought," which is basically a conscious intent to kill or cause great bodily injury to another person. 2nd degree murder is defined as murder which does not fit the category of 1st degree murder, which in most cases means killing another person without "malice aforethought."

The two could also be charged with either voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. Iowa Code defines voluntary as "caus(ing) the death of
another person, under circumstances which would otherwise be murder, if the person causing the death acts solely as the result of sudden, violent, and irresistible passion resulting from serious provocation sufficient to excite such passion in a person and there is not an interval between the provocation and the killing in which a person of ordinary reason
and temperament would regain control and suppress the impulse to kill."

Involuntary manslaughter is when someone "unintentionally causes the death of another person by the commission of an act in a manner likely to cause death or serious injury."