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| T.J. Lane unbuttons his shirt during sentencing Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Chardon, Ohio. Lane, was given three lifetime prison sentences without the possibility of parole Tuesday for opening fire last year in a high school cafeteria in a rampage that left three students dead and three others wounded. Lane, 18, had pleaded guilty last month to shooting at students in February 2012 at Chardon High School, east of Cleveland. Investigators have said he admitted to the shooting but said he didn't know why he did it. Before the case went to adult court last year, a juvenile court judge ruled that Lane was mentally competent to stand trial despite evidence he suffers from hallucinations, psychosis and fantasies. |
CHARDON, Ohio
(AP) -- Wearing a T-shirt with "killer" scrawled across it, a teenager
cursed and gestured obscenely as he was given three life sentences
Tuesday for shooting to death three students in an Ohio high school
cafeteria.
T.J. Lane, 18, had pleaded guilty
last month to shooting at students in February 2012 at Chardon High
School, east of Cleveland. Investigators have said he admitted to the
shooting but said he didn't know why he did it.
Before
the case went to adult court last year, a juvenile court judge ruled
that Lane was mentally competent to stand trial despite evidence he
suffers from hallucinations, psychosis and fantasies.
Lane was defiant during the sentencing, smiling and smirking throughout, including while four relatives of victims spoke.
After
he came in, he calmly unbuttoned his blue dress shirt to reveal the
T-shirt reading "killer," which the prosecutor noted was similar to one
he wore during the shooting.
At one point, he
swiveled around in his chair toward the gallery where his own family
members and those of the slain teenagers were sitting and spoke
suddenly, surprising even his lawyer.
"The
hand that pulled the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to
the memory," he said, then cursed at and raised his middle finger toward
the victims' relatives.
A statement released
later to local media by the court on the judge's behalf said that he
wasn't aware of the shirt and that if he had noticed it he would have
halted the proceedings and ordered Lane to wear proper attire.
A student who was wounded in the rampage dismissed Lane's outburst.
"He
said it like a scared little boy and couldn't talk slow enough that
anyone could understand him," said Nate Mueller, who was nicked in the
ear in the shooting.
Dina Parmertor, mother of
victim Daniel, called Lane "a pathetic excuse for a human being" and
wished upon him "an extremely, slow torturous death." She said she has
nightmares and her family has been physically sick over the crimes.
"From now on, he will only be a killer," she said, as Lane's smile widened. "I want him to feel my anger toward him."
Prosecutors
say Lane took a .22-caliber pistol and a knife to the school and fired
10 shots at a group of students in the cafeteria. Daniel Parmertor and
Demetrius Hewlin, both 16, and Russell King Jr., 17, were killed.
Lane
was at Chardon waiting for a bus to the alternative school he attended,
for students who haven't done well in traditional settings.
Six
days before the rampage, Lane had sent a text message to his sister,
who attended Chardon High school, and mentioned a school shooting,
Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz disclosed after the sentencing. He
gave no details about what the message said.
"The
way the text message was phrased to his sister, I'm not sure she would
have taken it as anything. I think only when you look at it in
retrospect does it really have the impact that it does now," Flaiz said.
Lane's
sister, Sadie, was in the cafeteria the day of the shooting, and said
outside the snow-swept courthouse that the brother she saw in court
wasn't the one she remembers. She asked for prayers for her family.
"It
may be hard for some to understand, but I love my brother and hope that
whatever the sentencing in life takes him in the future, that he can
touch others' lives in a positive way from the point of view that only
he can give," she said.
She spoke and left the courthouse before Flaiz addressed reporters.
Flaiz
said he has a theory about the motive but wouldn't discuss it until he
has a chance to meet with the families of victims and answer their
questions.
Lane's courtroom behavior came as a surprise, he added.
"I am totally disgusted by that," Flaiz said. "What he did today is consistent with what we thought of him all along."
One
of Lane's defense attorneys, Ian Friedman, also said he was caught
off-guard by the comments. The defense had signaled earlier that Lane
wouldn't speak in court and didn't want anyone to speak for him.
Lane
had pleaded guilty last month to three counts of aggravated murder, two
counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious
assault.
Life imprisonment without parole was
the maximum sentence Lane faced. He wasn't eligible for the death
penalty because he was 17 at the time of the shootings. Relatives of the
slain students indicated earlier they wanted Lane to get the maximum
sentence.
In addition to three life sentences
without chance of parole, Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David Fuhry
also gave Lane sentences totaling 37 additional years for attempted
murder and felonious assault and using a weapon in the crimes.
