Mother of Rocori victim calls for long prison term :
The families of John Jason McLaughlin’s victims, Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins, addressed McLaughlin today. Here are some quotes from the article…
Asked what he would do differently if he could relive Sept. 24, 2003, Rocori High School gunman John Jason McLaughlin said recently he’d simply get closer to one victim before he shot him.
But I guess he still would have shot him?
Kim Bartell’s voice rose in anger as she referred to the statement McLaughlin gave to corrections officials after his conviction in July in the deaths of her son, Seth Bartell, 14, and Aaron Rollins, 17.
McLaughlin has no remorse for what he did, she said. McLaughlin, she added “would have carried it out better, meaning to me he would have come out better. Not Aaron. Not Seth.”
And Aaron Rollin’s family…
Aaron Rollins’s mother, sister, and father also took the stand. At one point, Aaron’s father, Tom, held up a large family portrait taken before Aaron died.
“Jason handed us all a life sentence without parole, and he should get the same,” said Sherry Rollins, Aaron’s mother.
And some info about the sentencing…
At issue is whether McLaughlin will serve his sentences consecutively or concurrently, and whether Kirk will give him a harsher sentence for the second-degree conviction in Rollins’s death.
McLaughlin already faces life in prison on the first-degree conviction for Bartell’s death, though he can be considered for parole in 30 years.
Sentencing guidelines call for 12 1/2 years for the second-degree murder conviction.
Let’s hope the word of the day is consecutive.
