TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: School Violence

  • Carneal’s request for hearing denied

    Court rejects claims from Paducah school shooter:

    The Kentucky Supreme Court rejected a request from Paducah gunman Michael Carneal to have anew competency hearing. The now 25-year-old Carneal recently claimed, 11 years after the Paducah shootings, that at the time he shot up Heath High School he was mentally ill and that his lawyer was ineffective counsel at the time of his guilty plea

    Carneal argued that he was unable to reveal that he was hearing voices at the time of the shooting and guilty plea because of his mental illness. Justice Bill Cunningham, writing for the court, was unpersuaded, saying the claims rest solely on what Carneal says, not any outside evidence creating “a conceptual ‘Catch-22’.”

    It’s always nice to see that some judges still have common sense. Especially considering that the kids he killed, Nicole Hadley, Jessica James, and Kayce Steger, don’t have the luxury of appealing their death sentence.

    Carneal will be up for parole in 2023.

  • Paducah shooter now claims he heard voices

    Michael Carneal
    Michael Carneal

    High court hears arguments on Carneal’s competency:

    Michael Carneal was the then 15-year-old gunman who killed 3 and wounded 5 at Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky in 1997. At his trial, he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to the murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole in 25 years.

    Of course, he claimed he was bullied but again as most cowards do he shot and killed innocent bystanders, a group of students who were in a prayer circle.

    Now it’s being argued in the Kentucky Supreme Court on whether or not Carneal was too mentally ill to plead guilty. Now, through the wonders of modern junk psychology, Carneal is claiming that at the time of the shooting he was schizophrenic and was hearing voices.

    The Kentucky Supreme court is expected to rule in three to six months.

  • This day in history: Brenda Spencer

    This day in history: Brenda Spencer

    Pat from BelchSpeak was kind enough to send me this link to let me know that 29 years ago today was when Brenda Spencer opened fire on a San Diego elementary school that was across the street from her house. She ended up killing two and wounding nine.

    Pat asked me whatever became of her and I directed him to this post from 3 years ago when she was last denied parole.

    Pat, in his usual manner, replied…

    What? she hasn’t been released yet because she was a child at the time of the shooting and there is not a shred of DNA evidence that says she did it??

    Epic.

    That’s the difference between now and then. Then there was no debate on what to do with a 16-year-old murderer. She was sentenced to life.

  • Johnson convicted

    Johnson convicted

    Federal court jury convicts Jonesboro school shooter:

    Mitchell Johnson was convicted today on federal weapons charges. The best part is that the prosecution didn’t even bring up Jonesboro to do it.

    Government lawyers did not bring up Johnson’s violent past. The only clue during the two-day trial came during jury selection, when potential panelists were asked one-by-one whether Johnson’s name sounded familiar.

    The husband and son of one of his victims attended the trial…

    Mitch Wright, the widower of a teacher killed March 25, 1998, watched Tuesday’s court session along with his son Zane, who was 2 at the time of the shootings and is now 12. Wright said the boy “wanted to see what this person looked like.”

    Johnson will be sentenced within the next 45 days. He’s looking at a 10-year maximum.

  • Johnson trial starts

    Johnson trial starts

    Weapons trial begins for Jonesboro school shooter Johnson:

    The federal weapons trial for Jonesboro shooter Mitchell Johnson started earlier today.

    In opening statements, the prosecution stated that Johnson is a heavy marijuana user and had a nickel-plated 9mm in his possession at the time of the traffic stop on New Year’s Day 2007.

    The defense says that Johnson was pulled over on a bogus tip that Johnson was in possession of 100 pounds of marijuana, and that police were looking for any reason to pull him over.

    The article also contained this little gem of information…

    Johnson left prison with an “adjudicated” record _ meaning he could own firearms.

    I really hope the state of Arkansas closed that loophole too when they fixed the law that allowed Johnson and his cohort Andrew Golden to be released.

    The cop that pulled Johnson over testified that he saw Johnson driving erratically but admitted that he was looking for a legal reason to pull Johnson over.

    I’ll admit the evidence against him seems pretty flimsy, but Johnson should have never set foot out of jail in my opinion.

    Thanks to everyone who sent in tips.

  • Going to California

    Going to California

    New Trial to Begin for School Shooter:

    It seems that Jonesboro shooter Mitchell Johnson was on his way to California to make a new life for himself. Too bad he got caught traveling with another convicted murderer, and marijuana, and a gun.

    “Honest to God, I’m just trying to get to Cali, man,” Johnson told deputies as they searched the loaded-down, 1980s Ford van at a Fayetteville convenience store. The incident was recorded on video.

    Awwww…isn’t that cute?

    And it seems that he had just received the gun prior to his arrest on New Year’s Day 2007.

    Johnson lived in North Carolina and California for a while. He even returned to Jonesboro over Christmas 2006, where Craighead County Sheriff Jack McCann had warned that deputies “couldn’t guarantee” the safety of either him or Golden.

    He received a silver 9 mm Lorein pistol as a present and practiced “target shooting” near the city.

    Who in the blue hell thought it was a good idea to give a convicted school shooter and murderer another gun?

    Since he had already lived in California and returned to Arkansas, it proves the old adage. You can’t go home again. Or maybe that should be, you shouldn’t go home again.

  • Chanthabouly ruled mentally incompetent

    Chanthabouly ruled mentally incompetent

    Teen charged with fatal Tacoma school shooting found mentally ill:

    Douglas S. Chanthabouly is the gunman from Foss High School in Tacoma who fatally shot Samnang Kok last year. The last we heard he was found mentally fit to stand trial. Apparently, something happened between August and now because he’s declared mentally incompetent.

    His trial was set to start on February 4th, but that has been pushed back pending the results of a 90-day judge ordered stay at a mental facility.

  • Parents of Christopher Penley sue police

    Parents of Christopher Penley sue police

    Parents of Orlando-area teen sue sheriff’s office over fatal school shooting:

    The parents of Christopher Penley are suing the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.

    In January 2006, 15-year-old Christopher took a pellet gun and altered it to look like a real gun. He took the gun to Milwee Middle School where he used the gun to take a classmate hostage then held police at bay. Lt. Mike Weippert, who did not know the gun was not real, made the split-second decision to shoot Penley. Penley died at the hospital two days later after being declared brain-dead and taken off life support.

    Weippert was cleared of any wrongdoing and from what I’ve heard from people who claim to know him, he was very distraught over the incident.

    Penley’s parents are seeking unspecified damages. I feel bad for the Penley’s but as I’ve stated before, but their son sealed his own fate by pointing a gun at police. If Christopher had not brought the gun to school and acted like it was a real firearm, police would have never been called, and he’d still be alive. We are all responsible for our own actions.

    If I were a judge, I would never let this case see a courtroom.

  • So it’s not about the bullying in Joplin

    So it’s not about the bullying in Joplin

    Middle-school shooting suspect claimed he wasn’t targeting anyone:

    Ever since Thomas White fired a round from a MAC-90 into the ceiling of Memorial Middle School in Joplin, Missouri, his defenders have declared that it was because he was bullied, and the school wouldn’t do anything about it. Yet in recently released documents, White himself claims it was because he was failing in school and saw no other option.

    The 13-year-old boy believed he was failing four out of his six classes at Memorial Middle School. He felt it had got him “into trouble at home,” and he didn’t see anyway to improve his grades.

    How about studying and doing your work. Did you ever think of that? Look, I was no Valedictorian, but the only person who was responsible for my bad grades was me.

    Anyway, the fact that he claims that his failure would get him into “trouble at home” makes me think that we should be looking once again at the White family and not the school.

    As I’ve previously posted, Thomas White’s father is a former drug dealer who was in illegal possession of a firearm. The same firearm that Thomas White used at his school.

    Also, White said that he had no target in mind except to scare the teachers.

    Thomas White told them “he just wanted to scare people,” according to a statement of facts drawn up by public defender James Egan and submitted as part of a brief filed this past week with the state’s high court. When asked specifically whom he was trying to scare, he’d told them “all the teachers,” according to the brief.

    According to police, White tried firing the gun at his principal, but the gun had already jammed. White even admits to trying to fire the gun.

    White eventually “admitted,” during a second interrogation, that he’d tried to fire the gun more than once, although the brief claims this “admission” was elicited by his interrogators with the assistance of his own attorney at the time,

    His new attorneys say that his previous defense was inadequate. It sounds like to me, he was trying to get him the best deal possible. Now the case is tied up while attorneys argue that White should not be tried as an adult.

  • Johnson attorney tries to get statements squashed

    Johnson attorney tries to get statements squashed

    Jonesboro Shooter Wants Statements Suppressed:

    The attorney for Jonesboro gunman Mitchell Johnson wants statements Johnson made to police to be thrown out.

    Jack Schisler, assistant federal public defender, made the motion Monday in U.S. District Court. Schisler argued that Johnson was not read his Miranda rights before police began questioning him following a traffic stop. Schisler said Johnson made incriminating statements about his use of marijuana during the questioning.

    So, police have to read everybody Miranda rights when they get pulled over for a traffic violation? Spare me.

    Schisler contends Johnson was actually placed in custody, handcuffed and locked in the back seat of a patrol car, and questioned by police numerous times during a search of the vehicle. The exchanges were recorded by cameras in the police cars and on officers’ microphones.

    Being held in custody and being under arrest are two different things, but I’ll give him points for trying.

    If you’ll remember, Johnson was arrested on New Year’s Day 2007 for being in possession of drugs and a weapon. The city turned over the case to the feds, who are trying him on federal weapons charges.

    No word yet on when the trial is due to start.