The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for child neglect, nearly a year after her son used his gun to critically injure the educator.
Friday’s sentencing is the second time Deja Taylor has been arrested in connection with the classroom shooting, which shocked the nation and rocked the naval shipyard town of Newport News.
The state sentence he received Friday from Circuit Judge Christopher Papile was harsher than what was called for in state sentencing guidelines and harsher than the six-month joint sentencing recommendation that prosecutors and Taylor’s attorneys had agreed to in a plea deal.
Taylor was sentenced to 21 months in prison in November for using marijuana while in possession of a firearm, which is against US law. His combined state and federal sentences totaled 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 gun was in his mother’s purse. He hid the weapon in his backpack and then his pocket before shooting his teacher, Abby Zwerner, in front of her second grade class.
Taylor initially told investigators he had secured his gun with a trigger lock, but investigators said they never found it.
Taylor pleaded guilty earlier this year to a charge of criminal neglect. As part of the plea deal, local prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor charge of reckless possession of a firearm.
Abby Zwerner, the first grade teacher who was shot. AP
Taylor also pleaded guilty to federal marijuana weapons charges.
Investigators found nearly an ounce of marijuana in Taylor’s bedroom after the shooting.
James Ellenson, one of Taylor’s lawyers, said earlier this year there were “mitigating circumstances” surrounding the situation, including Taylor’s miscarriage and postpartum depression. He 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 happened. AP
Taylor told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in May that she felt responsible and apologized to Zwerner.
“That was my son, so I, as a parent, was obviously willing to take responsibility for him because he couldn’t take responsibility for himself,” Taylor said.
During his sentencing in federal court last month, one of Taylor’s lawyers read a brief statement in which Taylor said he would feel remorse “for the rest of my life.”
A gun shop in York County, Va. Mike Caudill New York Post
A bullet fired from Taylor’s gun struck Zwerner in the left hand and upper left chest, breaking a bone and puncturing a lung. The teacher rushed his other students into the hallway before collapsing in the school office.
The 6-year-old who shot Zwerner told a reading specialist who stopped him, “I shot that (expletive) dead” and “I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to a search warrant.
Zwerner told the judge during Taylor’s federal sentencing that he remembers losing consciousness while doctors treated him.
Zwerner said he remembers losing consciousness while doctors were treating him.
“I’m not sure if it will be my last moment on Earth,” Zwerner said.
Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has undergone five surgeries to restore movement in his left hand. He struggled to get dressed or tie his shoes.
He is suing Newport News Public Schools for $40 million, claiming administrators ignored multiple warnings the boy had a gun. He told a federal judge that he had lost his sense of self and had suffered “huge financial losses.”
Taylor arrived in federal court in June. AP
Zwerner no longer works for the school system and no longer teaches. She says she loves children but is now afraid to work with them.
She attended therapy and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, while also suffering from depression and anxiety.
“I face every day with deep emotional scars,” Zwerner said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
