Tomah Man Sentenced to Prison for Overdose Death Case

Friday, August 14th, 2026 -- 1:00 PM

(WEAU Staff, WEAU) A Tomah man was sentenced to prison in a 2023 overdose death case.

According to WEAU staff, 46-year-old Nicholas Hage was sentenced to 8 years of initial confinement and 8 years of extended supervision with conditions. He pleaded no contest to 1st-degree reckless homicide for delivering drugs.

According to a criminal complaint, on Feb. 3, 2023, a woman at 31395 Fresno Avenue just outside of Oakdale, Wis., called to report that her husband, Mark Hauser, was non-responsive and cold.

Hauser was dead in his bedroom when authorities arrived. Deputies found a gem bag containing a powdery residue which tested positive for fentanyl, a used syringe and a used fentanyl drug test kit showing a positive result for fentanyl in the bedroom.

This was not Hauser’s first documented overdose. An interview with Hauser’s wife revealed that on Feb. 1, they had met with Hage and snorted heroin with him. Hauser also purchased fentanyl from Hage at this time.

She said that she thought that maybe the heroin they had snorted was laced with fentanyl because afterward she got sick. She said that on Feb. 2, Hage dropped off more heroin for Hauser because he said he’d lost the bag he’d purchased the day before.

She said that Hauser must have used it while she was getting the bath water ready because she found him passed out in the doorway upstairs. She dragged him onto a mattress on the floor and went to sleep.

When she woke up the next day, he was dead. The autopsy showed methamphetamine and fentanyl in Hauser’s blood consistent with an overdose.

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