TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: Thomas White

  • Thomas White’s attorney seeks house arrest

    House arrest sought for teen accused in school-gun incident:

    The public defender for Thomas White is seeking to have his client put under house arrest while he awaits trial. White is the 14-year-old gunman who fired a round from an assault rifle into the ceiling of Memorial Middle School in Joplin, Missouri and allegedly tried to shoot his principal but the gun jammed. Let’s hear from White’s attorney, James Egan…

    “Under our system, the purpose of bail is to ensure the defendant show up for trial,” Egan wrote in his motion. “Here, (defendant) is a 14-year-old boy with no means of transportation. Further, any inappropriate actions of (defendant) during the period he is on house arrest will certainly be used against him if this court grants the requested relief and there is another certification hearing. Moreover, (defendant) risks having the preliminary writ quashed if he flees the jurisdiction.”

    The motion also says the boy is entitled under state law to educational services that “cannot be adequately provided” while he is in jail.

    A 14-year-old may not have any means of transportation but I’m sure his parents do. And as we’ve seen at least one of his parents isn’t above breaking the law. If you remember White’s father Gregory White was an ex-felon who was in possession of a firearm. Not only that but we’ve already seen what Thomas White thinks of educational services. He fires bullets into them.

    It’s his attorney’s fault that he hasn’t gone to trial yet anyway. His attorneys filed an appeal with the state Supreme Court back in September trying to get the case sent back to juvenile court. The state Supreme Court won’t even hear the appeal until February 28, 2008.

    Besides, it’s not like he’s been charged with jaywalking. He’s being charged with first-degree assault among other charges. House arrest would be a joke.

  • White’s lawyers appeal to Mo. Supreme Court

    Lawyers take school shooting case to Mo. Supreme Court:

    The lawyers for Thomas White are appealing to the Missouri Supreme Court to have White tried as a juvenile.

    Public defenders said Monday they have appealed to reverse a lower court’s July decision that Thomas White, 14, should be tried as an adult. He faces four felony counts related to the school shooting last October and a charge of attempted escape from juvenile custody.

    White was 13 at the time of the shooting at Memorial Middle School.

    Nobody was injured when White allegedly fired a single shot into the ceiling. Prosecutors allege that White repeatedly tried to shoot the school’s principal but that the gun jammed.

    The public defenders are just delaying the inevitable. Now all court proceedings will be postponed until the state supreme court issues a decision or reverts the case back to a lower court. My prediction is that the Missouri Supreme Court will more than likely refuse to hear the case.

    If they do hear the case I’m sure they’ll get a bunch of tear-stained letters from suburban housewives who think no teen is capable of murder. Just on that possibility alone, I wouldn’t hear the case if I was a Justice.

  • Thomas White given continuance

    Rally held for Thomas White; continuance allowed:

    This is, in my opinion, a very biased but well-written article about the rally that was held for Thomas White yesterday.

    Again, white is the teen gunman who fired a MAC-90 round into his school’s ceiling then pointed the gun at his principal while pulling the trigger after the gun jammed.

    First off let me say that people who drag their kids to protests or rallies, no matter what the protest/rally is about, are asshats. It makes you look like you’re exploiting your kids. Not only that but you never know when a protester is going to clash with police putting your kids in danger.

    But getting back to the matter at hand, Thomas White’s mother Norma was at the rally…

    Norma White, pictured, who stood nearby often close to tears, expressed remorse that she didn’t do more to protect her child whom she said came home with a “swollen hand” and other signs of school abuse. Subsequently, she had discovered, she said, that a teacher’s remedy for handling bullies was to “turn and walk away.”

    She also was sorry that she was not more outspoken earlier, but that she was following the advice of her son’s former attorney Chuck Lonardo who said to “keep quiet.” “I decided that just wasn’t working,” she said. She hopes that speaking out will get more community support.

    A swollen hand? That’s it? So he brought a gun to school over a swollen hand? His generation really does have its fair share of over-sensitive marshmallows. And in my opinion, I don’t think that she decided it was time to talk. I get the feeling that certain advocacy groups whispered in her ear. That’s not an allegation. It’s just a feeling I have. If Norma White wanted to do more maybe she should have gotten rid of the illegally owned guns in her house.

    The hearing to see if Thomas White will be sent back to juvenile court has been delayed two weeks.

    While Judge Mouton expressed concern over delaying the case in order, as requested by the defense, to present further testimony from three unnamed witnesses, he granted a two-week continuance in support of Thomas White’s rights. His decision was made against the strong objection of the APA. In setting the criminal motion hearing for Friday, July 20 at 1:30 p.m., Moulton was offering the defense another opportunity to make their case.

    The people at the rally shouldn’t delude themselves though. I’m sure that the rally had nothing to do with the judge’s decisions to allow a continuance.

  • Rally for Thomas White

    Rally planned for teenager accused in school shooting:

    The “Won’t someone think of the children” people are at it again. Today a rally was planned to be held in front of the Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin, Missouri this morning in honor of Thomas White. To refresh your memory White was the teenage gunman at Memorial Middle School in Joplin who fired a round from a MAC-90 into the ceiling of the school, the gun jammed, and White kept pulling the trigger while the gun was pointed at the school’s principal.

    Supporters of the boy, who was 13 at the time of the alleged offenses, have planned a rally outside the Jasper County Courts Building before the hearing. White’s mother, Norma White, will attend the rally, according to an announcement issued by a group calling itself Justice for Thomas White.

    The boy has received an outpouring of support in recent months from a number of juvenile-advocacy groups, including Justice for Juveniles, the Anti-Bullying Coalition and Bully Police, U.S.A., who argue that the boy is too young to stand trial as an adult.

    Yeah, because it worked so well the last time.

    White’s parents have said he faced bullying by other students, contributing to what they say was his dread of school and an effort to get himself expelled by taking a loaded gun there.

    School officials have said White and his parents never took any complaints of bullying to administrators before the shooting incident.

    There are other ways to get yourself expelled that don’t involve firearms. Hell, bring a joint to school. That should work with a lot fewer complications. Not that I’m buying that story anyway.

    How did the rally go? No clue because I don’t care. It probably didn’t do any good anyway.

  • We let him down

    Parents argue for juvenile justice in school shooting:

    The parents of Thomas White, the accused gunman at the Memorial Middle School shooting, have called for leniency in the treatment of their son.

    Norma and Greg White also blame themselves, saying they should have listened to their son when he repeatedly said how much he disliked school and asked to be home-schooled.

    Instead, Thomas White, 14, is facing being tried as an adult on multiple felonies and his father is serving an 18-month sentence for illegal possession of firearms in the family’s home.

    “He’s a good kid, and we let him down,” Greg White told the newspaper.

    Ya think? But you didn’t let him down by not homeschooling him. You let him down by having unsecured firearms in the house.

    The big deal is that Thomas white is charged as an adult for bringing an assault rifle to school, discharging a round into the ceiling, and pointing the gun at the principal and pulling the trigger. Luckily the gun jammed.

    “He needs punishment,” Greg White said. “We believe in the rule of the law.”

    Says the convicted ex-felon in illegal possession of a firearm.

    The Whites said they’ve looked at past cases involving school shootings and can’t find another example of a juvenile certified to be tried as an adult when it didn’t involve any deaths or injuries.

    They either don’t read this site or didn’t look too hard. In Michigan, Andrew Osantowski was 16 at the time of his arrest and was tried and sentenced as an adult and he didn’t even bring the guns to school. Not to mention the plots at Quartz Hill High in California and Winslow Township High in New Jersey.

    Sorry but there’s no compassion here. He made a conscious choice to take a gun to school with the intent to kill. Only by the grace of God was no one hurt or killed.

  • Gregory White sentenced

    Joplin man convicted for having firearms, ammunition in house:

    Gregory White, the father of Memorial Middle School shooter Thomas White, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for possessing firearms as a convicted felon.

    White had convictions of attempted burglary in Florida in 1980 and a meth conviction in California in 1988.

    White’s attorney, federal public defender Ann Koszuth, argued for a sentence at the lower end of the range, referring to her client as “a very solid and good family man,” with a good work history and only a distant criminal past.

    “This is a family that’s going to need its father back as quickly as possible,” Koszuth told the judge.

    The judge said he recognized this was “not the typical case we see here for a felon in possession.”

    “On the other hand, the number of guns you had is not just a slight violation,” Dorr said.

    Seems like a fair sentence to me.

  • Testimony in White hearing

    Testimony in White hearing

    Joplin seventh-grader bound over for trial in school shooting:

    Let’s take a look at some of the testimony in yesterday’s preliminary hearing about Thomas White, the 14-year-old Memorial Middle School gunman.

    During the preliminary hearing, two administrators testified that White pointed the assault rifle directly at them.

    Steven Doerr, assistant superintendent of Joplin’s public schools, said White was pointing the rifle at another student in the school’s main hallway when Doerr saw him, ran up and told him to put the weapon down.

    “He pulled the rifle down from his shoulder, pointed it up (toward the ceiling) and fired it,” Doerr testified. “The purpose of that, I think, was to demonstrate to me it was a real rifle and loaded and he meant business.”

    Doerr said White told him to go away, so Doerr stepped into a nearby classroom and called 911.

    Stephen Gilbreth, Memorial Middle School’s principal, said that when he heard the gunshot he ran out of his office and into the hall where White was standing. Gilbreth said he approached the boy, who was wearing a mask and hood, and repeatedly told him to put the rifle down and leave the building.

    Gilbreth said he thought White was trying to fire the gun when the boy repeatedly jabbed the weapon toward the principal. Police later said the rifle jammed because of improper seating of an ammunition clip in the gun.

    “The only thing he (White) said the whole time was, ‘Don’t make me do it,’” Gilbreth testified. “He was making a motion with the gun toward me. I thought he was trying to discharge the weapon but I couldn’t be sure.”

    Gilbreth said White then headed down some stairs and out of the building, with the principal behind him repeatedly encouraging him to keep walking and leave the school. White stopped once to look back and moved the gun toward Gilbreth, the principal testified.

    “I put my hands in my pockets (and) said, ‘I’m not doing anything, bud. Let’s just keep going,’” Gilbreth said.

    This is why he needs to be tried as an adult. Clearly, there was an intent to do harm. Only by the grace of God did the gun jam and no one was injured. It’s not like he brought a gun to school to show off to his friends, and it accidentally discharged. If that happened I’d say yeah, try him as a juvenile. But these actions show wanton malice on the part of White.

    The max he’s looking at is 49 years. I doubt he’ll get anywhere near that much, but I won’t lose any sleep if he does.

  • Additional charges filed in Memorial Middle shooting

    Additional charges filed in Memorial Middle shooting

    White hearing postponed again:

    Thomas White, the 14-year-old gunman in the Memorial Middle School shooting, has had a preliminary hearing postponed because prosecutors have filed additional charges.

    Jasper County Assistant Prosecutor Todd Hawkins said after reviewing police records, the prosecutor’s office filed two additional charges against White Monday afternoon – a second first degree assault charge and a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon.

    No word on how much that could potentially add to his sentence.

  • Missouri shooter’s father pleads guilty

    Missouri shooter’s father pleads guilty

    Father of Joplin school shooter pleads guilty:

    Gregory White, the father of Memorial Middle school shooter Thomas White, has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Missouri to being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.

    He’s looking at 10 years and a $250K fine. A date for sentencing has not been announced yet, and a hearing is being held today to see if Thomas White will be tried as an adult.

  • Malicious intent

    Malicious intent

    In our view: Memorial shooting:

    Over the years on this site, there has been a lot of debate about trying juveniles as adults for school shootings and the like. The latest debate rages over Memorial Middle School shooter Thomas White. To refresh your memory, White brought his father’s MAC-90 assault rifle to school, firing one round into the ceiling before the gun jammed, preventing any bloodshed. A lot has been argued about his intent. I think this article should clear up his intent, yet I’m sure the debate will still go on. This is from an editorial in the Joplin Globe which favors trying White as an adult, but it reveals one fact that I didn’t know of until now…

    We will disagree in this case, though every instance must be looked at separately. If anyone doubts the intentions of this disturbed young man, they should re-examine testimony in last week’s hearing in which a juvenile detention officer reported a conversation between White and another boy on Oct. 10, the day after the incident.

    The boy remarked to White that he should have gone ahead and shot Principal Steven Gilbreth in the head.

    “I would have shot him in the head,” White reportedly replied, “but my f—— gun wouldn’t shoot.”