• Ohio school shooter, wearing 'KILLER' T-shirt, sentenced to life in prison

    Pool/The News-Herald via AP

    T.J. Lane, wearing a "KILLER" T-shirt, smirks as he listens to the judge during sentencing on Tuesday in Chardon, Ohio.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Editor's warning: This story contains graphic content. 

    An Ohio judge has sentenced T.J. Lane, the Ohio teen charged with shooting three students to death and wounding three others last February, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

    Lane showed up to his sentencing wearing a white T-shirt with the word "KILLER" in capital letters scrawled on it -- the same word police say he had emblazoned on his shirt the day of the shootings at Chardon High School.

    Lane, 18, pleaded guilty last month to all charges against him in the Feb. 27, 2012, shootings, in which he opened fire on a cafeteria table full of students in the rural community of Chardon.

    In a brief statement during his sentencing on Tuesday, Lane flipped his middle finger at people in the courtroom, which included family members of his victims, reported NBC affiliate WKYC.com. He revealed his "KILLER" T-shirt to the court once he was inside, taking off a blue button-down he had worn on the way in, the station reported.

    Pool / The News-Herald via AP

    T.J. Lane unbuttons his shirt during sentencing Tuesday in Chardon, Ohio.

    Three students -- Demetrius Hewlin, 16; Russell King Jr., 17; and Daniel Parmertor, 16 -- were killed last February. Nate Mueller and Joy Rickers were wounded, as was Nick Walczak, who is paralyzed from the waist down, according to Reuters. 

    Lane has not given a motive for the shootings, which rocked the tiny town 30 miles outside Cleveland. He gave only a short, defiant statement in the courtroom on Tuesday: "This hand that pulled the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to the memory. F--- all of you."


    Gasps were heard in the courtroom as Lane then proceeded to stick up his middle finger at both his own relatives and those of his victims, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. Some people started crying.

    Geauga County Judge David Fuhry sentenced Lane to three life sentences without eligibility for parole for three counts of murder, plus 8 years for a fourth count of attempted aggravated murder, 6 years for a fifth count of attempted aggravated murder, and 6 years for a sixth count of felonious assault.

    In handing him the sentences, Fuhry said Lane lacked remorse for the killings. Lane was ruled mentally competent enough to stand trial last year despite evidence he suffers from hallucinations and psychosis. Fuhry said Tuesday that court examinations showed Lane faked mental illness and was such a smart student that he was set to graduate from high school early, Reuters reported. 

    The families of the boys who died in the shooting have attended every one of Lane’s court hearings, The Plain Dealer said. Other victims' family members also attended Tuesday's sentencing, and read statements to the court ahead of Lane's sentencing.

    "Because of you, our quiet little town will never be the same. Why? Why did you do it? Why?" Holly Walczak, mother of paralyzed victim Nick Walczak, said in court on Tuesday. Lane smiled as she read her statement, The Plain Dealer said.

    Dina Parmertor, mother of slain victim of Daniel, said, "I want you to be ensured years and years of pain, which in my opinion is not enough. You don’t deserve to take another breath while my 16-year-old son lies in the ground because of your cold, disgusting actions."

    "You’re a pathetic excuse for a human being. In fact, you're not even human. You’re a monster," she added, according to The Plain Dealer.

    Lane's sister, Sadie, who was in Chardon High School's cafeteria when her brother opened fire, also spoke on Tuesday, talking to reporters outside of the courthouse after the sentencing.

    "The brother in the courtroom and that did this is not the brother I knew," she said, offering her condolences to victims' families. 

    She described the moment she learned from a police officer who the shooter was last February. 

    “Along with other students, I heard the gunshots and screams, ran for my life, ducked under tables, hid in the teachers’ lounge, not knowing who the shooter was,” Sadie Lane said. "When those words hit me, I shook and cried and denied that all this could be true."

    She said she hoped for some good to come from the situation. 

    "It may be hard for some to understand, but I love my brother, and I hope he can touch other lives in a positive way," she said.

    Lane lived with his grandparents and attended an alternative school for students who haven't succeeded in traditional schools. He was waiting for the bus to his school from Chardon High when he began shooting from a .22-caliber semiautomatic Ruger handgun last February, according to police reports. 

    He was taken into custody a short distance from where the shootings happened.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

     

     

    This story was originally published on Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:59 AM EDT

  • Chalk one up for logic and reason in Sandusky sentencing

    By Wes Oliver, Special to NBC News

    ANALYSIS

    Courtrooms are in many ways public theaters. Parties come to court to resolve disputes, but there's another aspect to their work. They also show how the power of the state is appropriately used. When the conflicting parties are the state and a criminal defendant, courts explain why punishment is just. 

    Wes OliverWes Oliver is a law professor and director of the Criminal Justice Program at the Duquesne University School of Law.

    In Bellefonte, Pa., on Tuesday we saw just that public function at work in Jerry Sandusky's sentencing hearing. The practical effect of any sentence Judge John Cleland could have handed down was not in doubt. It was clear going into this hearing that Sandusky would get life. 

    The sentencing hearing was thus an opportunity for society to express its outrage at the crime committed, for the defendant to respond to the public, and for the judge to explain the sentence. 

    Prosecutor Joe McGettigen and three of the victims very powerfully described the harm Sandusky inflicted. McGettigen spoke in a measured way, noting that Sandusky's roles at Penn State and with the Second Mile charity provided a cloak for his real goal of molesting children. 

    The victims who spoke were all clearly emotional, but were measured in their combination of anger and sadness.  Their impact was profound, but not in a way that could have affected the sentence.  In some ways their statements had a more profound meaning than adding five, 10, or even 100 years to this life sentence. This forum provided them an opportunity to tell their abuser, with the support of the community and the apparatus of the state, how his crimes affected them.  This was a vehicle for them to express their outrage.  


    This was also an opportunity for Sandusky to respond to the community's condemnation. His rambling remarks, however, appeared to be an unsuccessful effort by an emotionally unstable man to preserve his legacy. At one point Sandusky stated, "I've been kissed by dogs. I've been bitten by dogs." At another point he invoked both the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and the words of Scripture.  "I've been to the mountain top," he said.  "I've seen the valley of the shadow of death." At other times, he seemed to be spouting poetry about prison life.

    Judge Cleland's remarks quite appropriately explained society's reasons for sentencing Sandusky as he did. His sentence needed to protect the community, reflect the gravity of the crimes, the defendant's hope for rehabilitation, and the effect of the crimes on the community. As expected, his sentence demonstrated his interest in appearing measured and thoughtful even in punishing a serious offender. Even speaking about a sentence of dozens of years for a 68 year old man was nonsensical, he noted, observing that there is "no place in the law for sentences to be an instrument of vengeance." 

    But Cleland needed to express the community's outrage, which he did masterfully. He noted that Sandusky betrayed those who trusted him, that his crimes were an "assault to their psyches and souls." 

    The entire proceeding struck exactly the right tone. Unlike the post-verdict celebration, Tuesday’s sentencing appropriately reflected the outrage of the victims and the community and left the impression that the legal process is one of logic and reason, not passion and vengeance.

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