Riverton

One of the five teens accused of planning a Columbine style shooting at his high school goes to trial. The trial of Coy New began Monday morning.

Investigators testified today that the five in question told them they were quote "somewhat serious about the plan" and had even discussed potential targets.

Earney Donaldson, the Riverton School Resource Officer testified to finding New`s myspace.com page in the days before the boys were arrested.

Donaldson says New had written, quote, "April 20th at 12 p Hitler?s birthday at Riverton school."

Detective Doug Wydick of the Cherokee County Sheriff`s Department, testified to interviewing new shortly after midnight on the morning of April 20th.

Wydick says new told him 1 teacher and two students were discussed as potential targets, including the ex-girlfriend of one of the 5 teens who were arrested.

On cross examination, Wydick said no target lists, body armor or the type of weapons the 5 allegedly discussed using were found.

Cherokee County Under Sheriff Kent Sousy also took the stand for the state today.

He testified James Tillman, the alleged ring leader of the five, said they were somewhat serious in their plans to carry out the shootings.

However, on cross he told the court Tillman stated that new wasn`t part of the plot.

The five Riverton High School students once accused of plotting a shooting rampage at their southeast Kansas school this morning entered pleas to the reduced misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to riot.

James Tillman and Robert Hunt, both 17, pleaded guilty to one count each. A judge put them on probation for the coming school year, when they will both be juniors.

Charles “Coy” New, 18, Caleb Byrd, 16, and Andrew Jaeger, 15, pleaded not guilty. The judge set a November trial date for New. No date was set for Byrd or Jaeger’s trial.

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has dismissed the most serious charge against one of five teenagers accused of planning to attack their high school and turned all five cases over to the Cherokee County prosecutor, a spokesman said Thursday.

The five students, all from Columbus, were arrested April 20 after a message about an alleged plot for shootings at Riverton High School in southeast Kansas appeared on the Web site Myspace.com.

James Tillman, 16, had been charged by the state in May with felony solicitation of first-degree murder, punishable by 55 to 247 months in prison and a fine of $100,000.

However, Tillman will now face one felony juvenile count each of incitement to riot and making a criminal threat, said Jan Lunsford, a spokesman for Kline.

Another member of Kline's staff, spokeswoman Sherriene Jones, said dismissal of the more serious charge resulted from further investigation since May.

"The attorney general's office only modifies charges when we feel a charge is no longer appropriate based on the evidence," she said.

Lunsford said Tillman still faces possible penalties of 12 to 40 months in prison and fines of up to $200,000. The teen has been under house arrest since mid-July, Marsh said.

"The evidence wouldn't support the solicitation of murder charge, but I don't think this makes it any easier," said Marsh. "These are still serious charges that these kids are facing and having personal felonies on your record can have serious repercussions."

The Cherokee County Courthouse in Columbus, Kan., has been evacuated and closed for the remainder of the day after a bomb threat was received this morning.

The threat was phoned in at 9:25 a.m. just as hearings concluded this morning for Riverton teens charged with felony incitement to riot and felony criminal threat in the alleged school-shooting plot at Riverton High School.

COLUMBUS, Kan. - Two more teens charged in an alleged school shooting plot in Riverton will be tried as juveniles, a spokesman for the attorney general's office said Tuesday.

Judge Robert Fleming granted state prosecutors' request to withdraw a motion to prosecute Robert Hunt, 17, and James Tillman, 16, as adults. Hunt will be under a 9 p.m. curfew and his parents must know where he is at all times. Fleming set bond for Tillman at $50,000 and he will be under house arrest if he makes bond.

On Monday, Fleming granted a similar request by Assistant Attorney General Andrew Bauch to try Caleb Byrd, 16, and Andrew Jaeger, 15, as juveniles, pending completion of Jaeger's psychological evaluation.

Tillman is charged with one count of incitement to riot, one count of making a criminal threat and one count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder. The four others face one count of incitement to riot and one count of making a criminal threat.

COLUMBUS, Kan. -- Two teens charged in an alleged school shooting plot at their southeast Kansas high school will be tried as juveniles, authorities said Monday.

A judge allowed prosecutors to withdraw their request to prosecute Caleb Byrd, 16, as an adult, according to the attorney general's office. The judge also allowed authorities to withdraw a motion to prosecute Andrew Jaeger, 15, as an adult, pending completion of a psychological evaluation.

The judge removed Byrd and Jaeger from house arrest but placed them under a curfew. Their parents are required to always know where they are. Their next hearing date has not been set.

COLUMBUS, Kan. -- Investigators looking into an alleged plot by five teenage boys to carry out a shooting spree at their southeast Kansas high school used a search warrant for violent computer games to seize "The Legend of Zelda," two "Spiderman" games and the financial software "Quicken," one of the boys' mothers said Wednesday.

Also seized from Chasinee Jaeger's house were two pocketknives and a plastic zip bag containing small-caliber ammunition used by her son to go hunting with his father, she said in her first public interview since charges were filed against her son, Andrew, and four other Riverton High School students.

"These people have so much power _ and we are dinky little citizens," Chasinee Jaeger said.

Chasinee Jaeger said her son is "an All-American boy" who takes lifeguard classes and karate classes. On the day he was arrested, he was to have received a district award for an FFA project on growing melons.

Last year, Andrew Jaeger was assigned a project regarding school problems and told to pick a subject for the report. He picked the Columbine school shooting, and concluded in the paper that those boys were intelligent and would have had a bright future if they had not done that, she said.

"He doesn't admire them," she said.

At home the family is so strict that Andrew cannot even be on the computer unless the screen faces an open door, his mother said.

Chasinee Jaeger, who came to this country from Thailand in 1981, said the family feels helpless. She said her son cooperated with police in answering questions, and has nothing to hide.

"It is unreal to us," she said of the charges.

She said she wishes she could prove her son was innocent of the accusations made against him.

"These boys have good hearts," she said.

Prosecutors now confirm they'll try the five teenagers as adults in the case. They were arrested April 20th, on the seventh anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre.

All five have been in jail since their arrests.