NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in prison for using marijuana while in possession of a firearm, which is against US law.
Deja Taylor’s son brought his gun to school and shot Abby Zwerner in her second-grade classroom in January, seriously injuring the educator.
Investigators later found nearly an ounce of marijuana in Taylor’s bedroom and evidence of frequent drug use in his text messages and equipment.
Taylor’s sentencing in US District Court offered the first measure of accountability for the January shooting, which reignited a national dialogue about gun violence and rocked the naval shipyard city of Newport News.
Taylor, 26, still faces a separate sentencing in December at the state level for felony child neglect. Dan Zwerner is suing the school system for $40 million, alleging that administrators ignored multiple warnings that the boy had a gun.
The federal case against Taylor comes at a time when marijuana is legal in many states, including Virginia, while many Americans own firearms.
Deja Taylor, the mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for using marijuana while in possession of a firearm.Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, File
Several US courts in other parts of the country have ruled against federal laws that prohibit drug users from owning firearms. But the law remains in effect in many states and has been used to prosecute others including Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia argued in court filings that Taylor’s “chronic, ongoing and … life-threatening abuse extends this case far beyond any occasional and/or recreational use.”
Prosecutors had asked for a 21-month prison sentence.
“This case is not a marijuana case,” they wrote. “It is a case that underscores the inherently dangerous nature and circumstances that arise from the caustic cocktail of mixing consistent and prolonged use of a controlled substance with a deadly firearm.”
Taylor’s son brought his gun to school and shot Abby Zwerner in her second-grade classroom.Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP
Taylor agreed in June to a negotiated guilty plea. He was convicted of using marijuana while in possession of a gun as well as lying about his drug use in federal form when he bought the gun.
Taylor’s attorney has asked the judge for probation and home confinement, according to court filings. They argued Taylor needed counseling for issues that included schizoaffective disorder, a condition that shares symptoms with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
“Ms. Taylor is deeply saddened, deeply saddened, and truly remorseful for the consequences and unintended mistakes that led to this horrific shooting,” her attorney wrote.
They also said he needed treatment for marijuana addiction.
“Addiction is a disease and incarceration is not the cure,” his lawyer wrote.
Police at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia after a shooting on January 30, 2023. Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP, File
Taylor’s lawyers also argued that the US Supreme Court could eventually overturn the federal ban on drug users owning firearms. For example, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled in August that drug users should not be automatically barred from owning firearms.
Other lower courts have upheld the ban and the Justice Department has appealed the 5th Circuit’s decision to the Supreme Court. The high court has yet to decide whether to take up the case.
Federal law generally prohibits people from owning firearms if they have been convicted of a crime, have been committed to a mental institution or are an illegal user of a controlled substance, among other things.
The United States Sentencing Commission reports that nearly 8,700 people were convicted under the law last year. The commission did not provide detailed information on the amount charged for their drug use. But it said almost 88% of them had been convicted of a previous criminal conviction.
Karen O’Keefe, director of state policy for the pro-legalization group Marijuana Policy Project, told The Associated Press in June that about 18% of Americans admitted to using marijuana in the past year and about 40% owned a firearm.
Taylor’s grandfather has had full custody of his son, now 7, since the shooting, according to court documents.
Taylor’s son told authorities he obtained the gun by climbing up a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the gun was in his mother’s purse. Taylor initially told investigators he had secured his gun with a trigger lock, but investigators never found it.
Immediately after the shooting, the child told a reading specialist who stopped him: “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to the search warrant.
Zwerner is suing the school district for $40 million.Toscano Law Group
It wasn’t the first time Taylor’s gun had been fired in public, prosecutors wrote. Taylor shot her son’s father in December after seeing him with his girlfriend.
“You could’ve killed me,” Taylor’s father said in a text message, according to a summary from prosecutors.
Moments after his son shot his teacher, Taylor smoked two blunts, prosecutors added. He also failed a drug test while awaiting sentencing on federal charges.
Taylor’s attorney said Taylor “stands before this court in shame, remorse and sadness.”
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