Wednesday, January 26, 2000
Students sentenced in plotting massacre
BY JOHN AFFLECK
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — Two teen-agers must spend at least a year in custody for leading a plot to conduct a Columbine-style massacre at South High School, while two accomplices must be held for at least six months, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Each of the boys could be held until age 21, the maximum penalty under state juvenile law, depending on his behavior while in the hands of the Ohio Department of Youth Services.
The South High plot was discovered when a student tipped off school officials that the teen-agers planned to open fire Oct. 29, the day of the school's homecoming dance and football game.
“The court did find the threat at South High to have been a serious one,” Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Judge Janet Burney said in a statement following the closed-door sentencing.
“There was a plan designed to kill individuals and destroy property at the school.”
The sentences were agreed to in December as part of a plea bargain.
Andy Napier, 15, and Benjamin Balducci, 16, — the plot ringleaders who received the one-year sentences — pleaded guilty Dec. 22 to conspiracy to commit murder.
Adam Gruber, 14, and John Borowski, 15, pleaded guilty to inducing panic and got the six-month sentences.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason said the sentences were appropriate.
“Now, no doubt remains that these students' intent to kill was real,” he said.
Authorities closed the school for a day after learning of the plot.
While police found no weapons or bombs in the building, they confiscated a total of eight guns from two of the suspects' houses.
Police also found two maps that showed positions for each shooter in the school and a list of possible students to recruit for the planned massacre.
Prosecutors said the youths wanted to carry out the attack because they felt alienated from their classmates.
Mr. Burney said none of them can be released until they have served their minimum sentence.
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