BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PADUCAH, Ky. -- Michael Adam Carneal is said to have occasionally mocked the morning prayer group that met in the lobby of Heath High School just prior to the start of each day's classes.
The members of the prayer circle didn't think much about it. Other students sometimes picked on and teased the slightly built, bespectacled ninth-grader, who looked younger than most freshmen. But Mr. Carneal, 15, would later tell psychiatrists that he grew tired of the taunts and felt pressured by the accomplishments of an older sister, who was valedictorian of the school's 1998 graduating class. The boy reportedly told friends last fall that "something big's going to happen."
Today, Mr. Carneal will go on trial in McCracken County Circuit Court, charged with killing three of his classmates and wounding five others in a Dec. 1 shooting spree at the West Paducah school. The rampage occurred in the lobby as the prayer meeting was breaking up, and all of the victims were members of the group.
Mr. Carneal was charged as an adult with three counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. He allegedly stole from a residence the .22-caliber pistol used in the shootings and four other guns.
Killed were 17-year-old Jessica James, 15-year-old Kayce Steger and 14-year-old Nicole Hadley. Another student, Melissa Jenkins, who was 15 at the time, was left paralyzed from the chest down. The prayer group's leader, Ben Strong, a pastor's son who was then 17, was credited with preventing more bloodshed by persuading the shooter to stop firing.
The crime was the second in what became a series of school shootings in the United States that occurred within months of one another. Two students were killed in Pearl, Miss., and four students and a teacher died in a shooting in Jonesboro, Ark. A teacher was shot dead at a school dance in Edinboro, Pa., and two students were shot to death at a school in Springfield, Ore.
A seldom-used Kentucky law that allows juries and judges to find mentally ill defendants guilty but recommend that they get treatment in prison will be a central issue at today's trial.
Defense attorneys Chuck Granner and Tom Osborne filed a motion Wednesday asking McCracken Circuit Judge Jeff Hines to allow their client to plead guilty but mentally ill to all charges. Mr. Carneal's original pleas of not guilty were entered on his behalf by another judge Jan. 15.
The motion asks for a hearing today half an hour before jury selection is to begin.
"We believe we have a very realistic defense that Michael Carneal does suffer from mental and emotional disability," Mr. Granner said.
If Mr. Carneal can be rehabilitated, he should have the chance to return to society, the attorney said.
But Judge Hines does not have to accept such a plea, and the prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Kaltenbach, contends Mr. Carneal is not mentally ill, and he wants Mr. Carneal to get the maximum sentence: life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
A more lenient sentence would allow Mr. Carneal to become eligible for parole after 12 years behind bars instead of 25, the motion says. Judge Hines ruled Tuesday that no television or still cameras or recording devices will be allowed in the courtroom during the trial. Mr. Kaltenbach had argued that teen-age witnesses who will be called to testify were frightened of the prospect of having their image on television newscasts or in newspapers.
Several news organization are challenging the judge's ruling. The trial will begin with the selection of 12 jurors and two alternates. Among the 183 people that Judge Hines removed from the original list of 500 potential jurors were two Heath High teachers and a relative of the judge.
Court documents Mr. Kaltenbach filed show that witnesses will testify Mr. Carneal often took weapons to school prior to the shootings, including a handgun on two occasions.
There also will be testimony that Mr. Carneal told several students he planned to take over either Heath High or a nearby mall, and that the students didn't take him seriously.
A psychiatric report prepared for the defense team characterizes Mr. Carneal as suffering from a form of chronic depression accompanied by feelings of low self-esteem and worthlessness. It also indicates he showed traits of paranoia and a schizophrenia-like personality disorder that results in social and emotional detachment.
Prosecutors have asserted that all the experts who have evaluated Mr. Carneal have found him sane and capable of controlling his actions. And by identifying 80 prospective witnesses -- police, physicians, schoolmates, teachers and friends -- prosecutors have signaled they are prepared to document the methodical way in which Mr. Carneal allegedly planned the crime.
The defense team's psychological findings made headlines after the parents of the dead girls and the families' Bowling Green attorney, Michael Breen, made copies public on June 23.
The following day, an angry Judge Hines issued a written order prohibiting the six parents from talking to others about the case. He also told the attorneys involved not to publicly discuss it. The Kentucky Court of Appeals in Frankfort later ruled that the judge's order was unjustified.
On Sept. 15, Judge Hines denied a request from Mr. Osborne to delay the trial. The defense lawyer had cited a state law prohibiting the pretrial release of mental records of young defendants.
