TJ Lane: Chardon High School Shooter Expected To Plead Guilty

Chardon, OH – TJ Lance, the teenager accused of killing three students at a northern Ohio high school last, will reportedly plead guilty today. Defense attorney Ian Friedman declined to offer any details about the Chardon High School shooting plea details when speaking to the media before the hearing.

The TJ Lane plea bargain has supposedly been in the works for at least several weeks. The accused Chardon High School shooter will appear back in court one day before the first anniversary of the tragic mass shooting, Huffington Post reports.

The 18-year-old accused shooter’s attorneys reportedly requested psychiatric testing to determine if their client was competent to stand trial for the murders. Before the case was transferred to adult court last year, a juvenile judge had rules that TJ Lane could stand trial. The Ohio judge was reportedly presented with evidence that the accused school shooter suffered from psychosis, hallucinations, and fantasies.

Lane faced a possible life sentence in prison without the opportunity for parole. Even though the Chardon High School shooting case is being tried in adult court, TJ Lane was still a minor at the time of the crime. In Ohio, minors are not eligible for the death penalty.

Chardon police investigators maintain TJ Lane entered the school building to await a bus to an alternative educational center before the murders. Police officers stated the teenager admitted to killing his peers, but did not say what motivated the crime.

Geauga County Prosecutors maintain TJ Lane took a 22-caliber handgun and a knife into the school and fired ten rounds at a group of teenagers in the cafeteria. Lane is charged with three counts of murder and two counts of attempted aggravated murder, NewsNet 5 reports.

If you were the prosecutor I the TJ Lane case, would you have offered a plea bargain for the murders at Chardon High School?