On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Chardon High School shooting, T.J. Lane took responsibility for opening fire on six of his fellow students — two of whom sat 20 feet from him — against his attorneys’ advice.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Chardon High School shooting, T.J. Lane took responsibility for opening fire on six of his fellow students — two of whom sat 20 feet from him — against his attorneys’ advice.
After Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David Fuhry found Lane competent to stand trial Tuesday morning, there was about an hour break when Lane signed the plea agreement, which defense counsel and the county prosecutor witnessed.
Calmly answering “yes” or “yes, your honor” to every question Fuhry asked him, Lane — wearing a green dress shirt and shaven head — voluntarily pleaded guilty to “purposefully and with prior calculation and design” causing the death of Chardon students Daniel Parmertor, 16, Russell King Jr., 17, and Demetrius Hewlin, 16, with a firearm.
In addition to the three aggravated murder charges, Lane also pleaded guilty to two attempted aggravated murder charges involving Nate Mueller, 17, and Nick Walczak, 18 — who is paralyzed from the chest down — and pleaded guilty to felonious assault against Joy Rickers, 18.
In the close quarters of Fuhry’s courtroom, the families of the victims, Lane’s parents and legal guardians — grandparents Jack and Carole Nolan — as well as Mueller and Walczak sat within feet of each other.
Prior to the proceedings, which were originally set to schedule a new trial date, Walczak smiled and waved at Chardon Schools Superintendent Joe Bergant and High School Principal Andy Fetchik, who were also seated in the courtroom.
Both Mueller and Walczak remained expressionless as they watched Lane plead guilty to his charges while Carole Nolan was visibly crying as her grandson continued to answer “Yes, your honor” on all counts.
His paternal grandmother, Michelle Lane, could be be seen shaking her head as he pled guilty to each crime while Lane’s mother, Sarah Nolan, sat solemnly with her fingers interlaced on her lap and his father, Thomas Lane Jr., sat with his arms folded across his chest, neither expressing emotion.
“Does your counsel agree to your decision to enter into these pleas?” Fuhry asked Lane.
“No, your honor,” he replied.
Lane’s change of plea included withdrawing his previous plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Seated to his right were defense attorneys Ian Friedman, Mark DeVan and Ann Walton followed by Lake County Assistant Prosecutor Karen Kowall, Assistant Prosecutor Mark Bartolotta, Assistant Prosecutor Nick Burling and Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz.
Prior to his plea, the state agreed to remove the death penalty specifications on all charges, as Lane was 17 at the time of the shooting and, therefore, not eligible for the death penalty.
Lane, however, pleaded guilty to all six firearms specifications.
Lane faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. Fuhry has scheduled his sentencing for 9:30 a.m. March 19.
Flaiz also entered four pieces of evidence under seal in support of Lane’s guilty plea.
“Had this matter gone to trial, the state would have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did commit aggravated murder. That on Feb. 27, 2012, the defendant entered Chardon High School with a gun and that his conduct involved prior calculation and design and that premeditated murders took place, attempted murders and felonious assault,” Flaiz said as Lane, seated directly across from him, kept a steady gaze on him.
The pieces of evidence were the video of the shooting, the dashcam video from Geauga County Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Bilicic’s patrol car upon Lane’s arrest, video of Lane’s confession at the Geauga County Safety Center and a transcript of both the dashcam video and confession.
“The decision to plead guilty was T.J.’s and T.J.’s alone,” Friedman told a swarm of media gathered outside the courthouse after the hearing.
“This plea does foreclose any potential previously raised defenses and those that still possibly could have been developed,” he said. “It is hoped that this decision will bring closure to what has been a tragic year for the victims, their families and loved ones, T.J.’s family and the entire community, both near and far.”
When asked why Lane decided to enter into a plea agreement, Friedman said he could not answer that.
“We can’t make comment to that. This is T.J.’s decision, as you heard in court,” Friedman said. “The court did address all of his rights, it did talk about all of the facts and T.J. has made that decision on his own and we’re just going to have to accept what was said in court.”
Friedman said people understandably have “called for this acknowledgement of guilty immediately after that horrific day.”
“It will inevitably go and be internally engrained in the minds and hearts of all of those who have been touched,” he said. “Every citizen, though, no matter how heinous his or her crime, must be afforded the process of law. The Geauga County prosecutor, Jim Flaiz, and David Joyce before him, along with their team of prosecutors, have honored this fundamental right.”
Friedman said the Nolan and Lane families were “victims as well” and called on the media to honor and respect their privacy.
“T.J.’s plea of guilty is a complete admission of each and every element of each and every crime,” he said. “T.J. has made it clear he will not seek to mitigate what has been done.”
As such, it is unlikely Lane would make any statement at his sentencing.
“As we stand before this one-year anniversary, we can say that this legal chapter will soon be brought to conclusion,” Friedman added.
He also acknowledged a plea deal has been discussed for “quite some time” and called any state imposed plea deadline “inconsequential.”
“We’re here now, the plea is in, it is sound and now we will move forward to sentencing on the 19th,” he said.
In response to a question asking why Lane shot the six students, Friedman said he did not have an answer.
“It may be addressed at sentencing, it may not. I think we’re just going to have to accept the fact that today he did take responsibility for his conduct on the 27th of February,” he said.
Flaiz also spoke to the media and said over the past several months, prosecutors have worked with the victims and their families and walked them through the plea agreement process.
“All of them are in 100 percent support of the plea agreement that we reached today,” Flaiz told the media outside the courthouse. “Today’s result is the same that would have occurred had we had a jury trial. The defendant pled guilty to all six counts of the indictment and all six firearms specifications. That is the same result we would have expected had we had a jury trial.”
He added, “So today’s plea accomplishes what we wanted to accomplish at the outset, which was to see that justice was done. It puts this matter in the hands of the judge.”
Flaiz then discussed what a “fair and just” sentence would be in his opinion.
“I think to the community, the families, the victims, what they’ve told us, and what we believe, is that this defendant never leaving a prison cell would be the most fair and just result we could have in this case.”
Flaiz also noted Lane was not eligible for the death sentence, so by dropping the death sentence specifications, the prosecution avoided the empaneling of a three-judge panel to accept Lane’s plea and fashion an appropriate sentence.
Flaiz declined to discuss any of the evidence in the case until after sentencing.
“We will comment on specific issues with the case, but we’ll do that after sentencing,” he said.
The prosecutor also said the bottom line of the court-ordered competency evaluation was that Lane was of “above average intelligence, understands the proceedings, was able to assist his lawyers and was competent to stand trial.”
“There were no issues there,” Flaiz said, adding that nothing in the competency report addressed any possible motive in the case.
“We’ll answer questions about that after sentencing,” he added.
Flaiz also said the state did not believe Lane suffered from hallucinations or other mental health issues referenced in Dr. Phillip Resnick’s competency report filed in juvenile court.
“It is our position that those never occurred,” he said.
While he declines to discuss any imposed deadline to enter into a plea deal, Flaiz did say it was important to the community that something be done prior to the one-year anniversary.
