DRESSING THE PART: Ohio teen T.J. Lane unveils his hideous message in court yesterday as he faces the families of the students he murdered. (
)
CHARDON, Ohio — Wearing a T-shirt with “killer” scrawled across it, a teenager cursed and gestured obscenely as he was given three life sentences yesterday for shooting to death three students in an Ohio high school cafeteria.
T.J. Lane, 18, had pleaded guilty last month to shooting at students in February 2012 at Chardon HS, east of Cleveland. Investigators have said he admitted to the shooting, but said he didn’t know why he did it.
Before the case went to adult court last year, a juvenile court judge ruled that Lane was mentally competent to stand trial despite evidence he suffers from hallucinations, psychosis and fantasies.
Lane was defiant during the sentencing, smiling and smirking throughout, including while four relatives of victims spoke.
After he came in, he calmly unbuttoned his blue dress shirt to reveal the T-shirt reading “killer,” which the prosecutor noted was similar to one he wore during the shooting.
At one point, he swiveled around in his chair toward the gallery where his own family members and those of the slain teenagers were sitting and spoke suddenly, surprising even his lawyer.
“The hand that pulled the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to the memory,” he said, then cursed at and raised his middle finger toward the victims’ relatives.
A student who was wounded in the rampage dismissed the outburst.
“He said it like a scared little boy and couldn’t talk slow enough that anyone could understand him,” said Nate Mueller, who was nicked in the ear in the shooting.
Dina Parmertor, mother of victim Daniel, called Lane “a pathetic excuse for a human being” and wished upon him “an extremely, slow torturous death.” She said she has nightmares and her family has been physically sick over the crimes.
“From now on, he will only be a killer,” she said, as Lane’s smile widened. “I want him to feel my anger toward him.”
Prosecutors say Lane took a .22-caliber pistol and a knife to the school and fired 10 shots at a group of students in the cafeteria. Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, both 16, and Russell King Jr., 17, were killed.
Life imprisonment without parole was the maximum sentence Lane faced. He wasn’t eligible for the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the shootings.