CONWAY, Ark. (AP) — A former high school student in Arkansashas been sentenced to seven years in prison for devising a plan to shoot up aschool.
Circuit Judge Charles Clawson sentenced 20-year-old DanielCroslin on Friday. Croslin pleaded guilty to making a terrorist threat inSeptember.
Croslin made plans to shoot up Conway High School on the20th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. Croslin was 19 when he told acounselor that he was bullied in school and wanted to get revenge, courtdocuments show.
Police found Croslin’s notes that included a diagram of theschool and evidence that he recruited friends asking them to help him buy anassault rifle and items needed for a pipe bomb. He was described as seekingattention, even if negative, according to court documents.
Clawson said he found clinical psychologist’s Hugo B. Moraistestimony last week to be concerning. Morais testified that Croslin showedsigns of malingering, which is exaggerating physical or psychological symptoms.Clawson also found the level of planning put into creating detailed diagrams ofConway High School to be alarming.
“It’s my judgment these are serious issues that requirethe court to take serious action,” Clawson said.
Before the hearing, prosecutor Hugh Finkelstein wrote aletter to the judge requesting Croslin receive a 15-year sentence accompaniedby a 15-year suspended sentence. He also included a list of the 125 schoolshootings that have occurred following the Sandy Hook Elementary Schoolmassacre that left 28 dead and two injured.
“I will stop here at Sandy Hook Elementary because eventhough there are dozens of other school shootings that occurred before thisevent, this is where most of the country took notice of these atrocities,”Finkelstein said in the note. “It should be noted, however, that FaulknerCounty was well aware of school shootings long before Sandy Hook. On October26, 2008, two students were murdered, and another person was wounded at theUniversity of Central Arkansas.”
The seven-year sentence also carries a two-year suspendedsentence upon Croslin’s release from prison.
Finkelstein said they are lucky the professionals whoencountered Croslin took his threats seriously.
