The Latest: School shooter gets life without parole

By Associated Press 15 November 2019, 12:00AM

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing hearing for a teenager in a South Carolina school shooting (all times local):

5:10 p.m.

A school shooter who was 14 when he killed a first grader on a school playground in South Carolina has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Judge Lawton McIntosh said Thursday he was worried Jesse Osborne showed little remorse after killing his father in their Anderson County home, then shooting at the playground at Townville Elementary School while a first grade class was celebrating a birthday party.

Osborne had attended Townville Elementary. His principal joined the teacher whose class was on the playground, the family of the boy killed, Osborne’s own uncle and even a child there that day in asking for the life sentence.

Osborne, now 17, was being tried as an adult and faced a minimum of 30 years after pleading guilty to murder.

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11: 55 p.m.

The grandfather of a teen who killed his father and a first-grader at a South Carolina school playground said he hopes his grandson isn’t sentenced to prison for the rest of his life and promised to provide for the teen if he can get out of prison in his 40s.

Tommy Osborne testified Thursday at a special hearing as a judge considers a sentence after his grandson, Jesse Osborne, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder for killing his father and shooting a first-grader at Townville Elementary School in September 2016 when he was 14.

Jesse Osborne faces a possible sentence range of 30 years to life without parole.

Tommy Osborne said he knows his 17-year-old grandson must be punished. He said he would pay for any extra counseling the teen can get behind bars and if the judge doesn’t hand down a life sentence, will create a trust fund for his release and has a promise his church will watch him.

Prosecutors are asking for a life sentence. This week’s special hearing is required under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that life sentences for juveniles can’t be mandatory and arbitrary.

By Associated Press 15 November 2019, 12:00AM
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