Donald S. Harden Guilty in Heroin Death, Faces Life

Donald S. Harden, 47, of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, was found guilty on November 16, 2016, in federal court in Green Bay after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to distribute heroin resulting in the death of 24-year-old Frederick J. Schnettler of Neenah. The verdict marks the end of a high-stakes trial that exposed a deadly heroin pipeline stretching from Chicago to the Fox Valley, with Harden at the center.

Prosecutors proved Harden purchased multi-kilogram quantities of heroin in Chicago and funneled them through a stash house in Watertown, Wisconsin. From there, he distributed bulk amounts to mid-level dealers across the region during the spring and summer of 2014. The jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that the conspiracy involved at least 100 grams of heroin and directly caused Schnettler’s fatal overdose in September of that year.

On September 4, 2014, Harden met a co-conspirator in a Waupun retail parking lot and handed over 11 grams of heroin. According to trial testimony, he warned her, “be careful with this stuff, it’s got bodies on it.” That same batch was later used by Schnettler, who died from acute heroin toxicity, as confirmed by the Fond du Lac County Medical Examiner. Days later, another overdose tied to Harden’s supply was uncovered by Winnebago County Sheriff’s investigators.

Harden is no stranger to the law. He was previously convicted of manufacturing or delivering cocaine in Jefferson County Circuit Court in 2000 and for manufacturing or delivering heroin in Dane County Circuit Court in 2007. Those prior felony drug convictions now trigger a mandatory life sentence under federal law due to the death resulting from his recent offense.

He will be sentenced in February 2017 by Chief Federal Judge William C. Griesbach in Green Bay. With the jury’s findings and his criminal history, Harden faces no possibility of parole. He remains locked up at the Federal Correctional Institution in Berlin, Wisconsin, awaiting final judgment.

The case was built through a sprawling investigation involving the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office, Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group – Drug Unit, Appleton Police Department, Jefferson and Dodge County Drug Task Forces, Oshkosh Police Department, Fond du Lac County Medical Examiner’s Office, and the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel R. Humble and Andrew J. Maier led the prosecution.