The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for felony child neglect, nearly a year after her son used his gun to seriously injure the educator.
Friday’s sentencing was the second time Deja Taylor was held responsible for the classroom shooting, which shocked the nation and shook the military shipbuilding city of Newport News.
The state sentence he received Friday from Circuit Judge Christopher Papile was stricter than state sentencing guidelines require and harsher than a joint six-month sentencing recommendation that prosecutors and Taylor’s attorneys had agreed to in a plea deal. of guilt.
Taylor was sentenced in November to 21 months in federal prison for using marijuana while possessing a gun, which is illegal under U.S. law. The combination of his state and federal sentences amounts to a total punishment of nearly four years behind bars.
Deja Taylor was sentenced to two years in prison. AP
Taylor’s son told authorities he got his mother’s 9mm handgun by climbing into a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mother’s purse. He hid the gun in his backpack and then in her pocket before shooting her teacher, Abby Zwerner, in front of her first-grade class.
Taylor initially told investigators he had secured his gun with a trigger lock, but investigators said they never found one.
Taylor pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of gross negligence. As part of that plea deal, local prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor charge of reckless storage of a firearm.
Abby Zwerner, the first grade teacher who was shot. AP
Taylor also pleaded guilty to the federal marijuana weapons charge.
Investigators found nearly an ounce of marijuana in Taylor’s room after the shooting.
James Ellenson, one of Taylor’s attorneys, said earlier this year that there were “extenuating circumstances” surrounding the situation, including Taylor’s miscarriages and postpartum depression. She has also been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a condition that shares symptoms with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to court documents.
Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia, where the shooting took place. AP
Taylor told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in May that she feels responsible and apologized to Zwerner.
“That’s my son, so as a father, I’m obviously willing to take responsibility for him because he can’t do it for himself,” Taylor said.
During his sentencing in federal court last month, one of Taylor’s attorneys read aloud a brief statement in which Taylor said he would feel remorse “for the rest of my life.”
A gun store in York County, Virginia. Mike Caudill New York Post
The bullet fired from Taylor’s gun hit Zwerner in the left hand and upper left chest, breaking bones and puncturing a lung. The teacher led her other students into the hallway before collapsing in the school office.
The 6-year-old boy who shot Zwerner told a reading specialist who restrained him: “I shot that (expletive) dead” and “I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to search warrants.
Zwerner told the judge during Taylor’s federal sentencing that she remembers losing consciousness while doctors worked on her.
Zwerner said she remembered losing consciousness while doctors were treating her.
“I wasn’t sure if it would be my last moment on Earth,” Zwerner said.
Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and underwent five surgeries to restore movement to his left hand. He has trouble putting on his clothes or tying his shoes.
She is suing Newport News Public Schools for $40 million, alleging administrators ignored multiple warnings that the boy had a gun. She told the federal judge that she had lost her sense of self and had suffered a “massive financial loss.”
Taylor arrives in federal court in June. AP
Zwerner no longer works in the school system and no longer teaches. He said that he loves children but that now he is afraid to work with them.
He attends therapy and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, in addition to suffering from depression and anxiety.
“I face deep emotional scars every day,” Zwerner said.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn