Judge sentences teen who fired shot in Bountiful classroom


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FARMINGTON — A 15-year-old Bountiful boy convicted of bringing a shotgun to Mueller Park Junior High School and firing a round into a classroom ceiling was sentenced Thursday to a secure juvenile facility.

But how long the teen remains there will be determined by how well he responds to treatment and what the results of a risk assessment show. Ultimately it will be up to the Youth Parole Authority to determine how long his sentence will run.

He could be held in a secure facility until he turns 21, or he might be released in just six months, according to his attorney. Prosecutors admit it's unlikely the boy will be held until he's 21.

On Nov. 30, the boy, whom KSL has opted not to identify, stole two guns — a 12-gauge shotgun and a 9 mm handgun, as well as ammunition for both weapons — from his parents' safe and took them to Mueller Park Junior High School, 955 E. 1800 South in Bountiful, the next day.

The boy went into a science classroom and fired a round into the ceiling without saying a word while 26 other students and a teacher looked on. Prosecutors on Thursday said the room he went into was not his homeroom classroom, but declined to say whether the class was picked at random.

After the shot was fired, the teacher and a student in the class, a friend of the boy, urged him not to do anything else as the boy paused for a moment before pointing one of the guns at himself.

During that pause, the boys' parents — who were already in the school looking for their son — ran into the classroom, took the gun away and took him into the hallway where they held him until police arrived.

On Thursday, a packed courtroom watched as the lanky teen with a very boyish face and shaggy hair was sentenced.

About a half-dozen friends, classmates and parents addressed the court before the boy's sentence was handed down. All of them echoed that the teen had a big heart and was simply someone who had been dealing with a lot of emotional pain and didn't know how to handle it properly.

"I feel like he never would have hurt anybody," the parent of one of the teen's friends said. "He was trying to find a way out of the pain."

"I know he'd never hurt anyone," a boy who identified himself as one of the teen's best friends said.

"I know that what he did was not him," another friend told the judge.

But Ranae Hart, a victim advocate for the Davis County Attorney's Office, told the judge there are also many students and parents who are still suffering because of the boy's actions. Some still "jump" when they hear a loud noise, and at least one student hasn't returned to school, she said.

"This has been terrifying for them. This is something that has not gone away," Hart said.

Even though some of those people were afraid to speak in court on Thursday, she said many submitted letters for the judge to read.

The boy's father also addressed the judge, saying that his son made a "horrible decision" that day. But he also doesn't believe his son intended to hurt anyone. He believes his son was "in so much pain" that day and didn't know what to do.

"We don't have the words to express how sorry we are," he said to the other students and faculty at the school.

The teen pleaded guilty in 2nd District Juvenile Court to discharging a firearm, a third-degree felony, and theft of a single firearm, a second-degree felony, earlier this month. In exchange for his pleas, prosecutors dropped charges of theft and two counts of possession of a gun on school property.

Outside the courtroom, the boy's attorney concurred that he had a lot of pain built up over the years and had previously tried to reach out to get help.

"He kept slipping through the cracks. And it seemed the more he reached out, the more he was rejected and I think that went directly to the problem," attorney Lindsay Jarvis said. "This was a long time in the making for sure, all the way back probably to elementary school."

It was also revealed Thursday that the teenager had been placed on new depression medication just a few weeks prior to the incident at the school, which Jarvis believes was the factor that pushed him over the edge.

"We absolutely deny any propensity for violence. We've said that from the beginning. He was looking to hurt himself. There is no evidence to support an allegation he was going to hurt anybody else. In this particular situation, all he saw was an opportunity to go in and — I don't think he ever, for one second, imagined coming out of there," she said.

While prosecutors agreed it was the right resolution to the case, they took issue with the notion that the boy did not have a propensity for violence. A 2014 incident at another school district, that was ultimately resolved internally, was mentioned in passing in the courtroom Thursday.

"He actually was a threat," said Ryan Perkins, the juvenile court section chief of the Davis County Attorney's Office.

But citing the best interest of the teen's rehabilitation, Perkins declined to go into detail about any prior incident. He said his job is to balance public safety with treatment for a juvenile.

Despite the letters the judge received expressing concern about the teen, Jarvis said the community has overall been supportive to the boy's family. She said the hope now is that the student gets the help he needs. The family has already agreed that their son will not go back to Mueller Park Junior High or any school in the Davis School District, she said.

Overall, Jarvis called it a good outcome for both the boy and the community.

"When the options are certify a 15-year-old as an adult and do some time in (an adult facility), it seems like an easy choice, especially for the parents. They didn't want to risk the loss of their son at that point," she said.

At the end of the hearing, 2nd District Juvenile Judge Janice Frost reminded the teen that it is up to him what happens now.

"It's important to take responsibility, but also move forward," she said. "The burden is really on you to make this work."

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