A Virginia mother has been sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison and won’t see her son, the one who shot his teacher with a loaded gun, for another 11 years.
The woman’s sentence is more than quadruple the amount of time recommended by the prosecution, emphasizing the gravity of her neglect as a parent.
Deja Taylor’s son shot his teacher when he was 6 years old. He told law enforcement that he took his mother’s 9mm handgun out of her pocketbook from the top of her dresser. He then hid the weapon in his school book bag, only to take it out and put it in his pocket when he got to school.
Upon arriving at Richneck Elementary School, he pulled out the gun and shot his teacher, Abby Zwerner, in front of the entire first-grade class.
The mother entered into a plea deal, admitting to felony child neglect, with the prosecution recommending she be sentenced to six months. In an unexpected decision, the court sentenced her to five years behind bars, suspending three years of the sentence. Taylor, whose lawyers say she suffers from postpartum depression and schizoaffective disorder, will serve two years of incarceration.
This sentence comes a month after Taylor was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison for using marijuana while owning a gun. This charge, which she pleaded guilty to, came after officials found an ounce of cannabis in her bedroom after the school shooting.
She will start her two-year sentence on the state charge of the shooting after she finishes up the 21 months. Sources say even after she gets out, she will not be allowed to see her son until he turns 18 years old.
Her lawyer, James S. Ellenson, said he believes the sentencing was “excessive and harsh,” according to the New York Times. He said his client is “very upset and sad.”
The boy, now 7 years old, shot Abby Zwerner, hitting her left hand and upper chest, shattering bones and puncturing a lung. The shooting was traumatizing to the teacher and the students.
According to search warrants, the child later admitted to it and bragged about getting his mother’s gun the previous night to a reading specialist and said, “I shot that (expletive) dead.”
Taylor was later interviewed about how her son was able to get the gun.
“Ms. Taylor stated she either stores her firearm in her purse with a trigger lock in place or in a lockbox. Ms. Taylor believes on the morning of Jan. 6, 2023, that her firearm was stored in her purse with the trigger lock in place and that her purse was on top of her bedroom dresser,” the warrants said. “Ms. Taylor stated she keeps the key for the gun lock under her bedroom mattress.”
Virginia law prohibits leaving a loaded gun within reach of children under the age of 14.
Taylor joins other parents who have been charged because their children were involved in school shootings.
On Sept. 29, the Michigan Supreme Court allowed charges to proceed against James and Jennifer Crumbley, parents of Ethan Crumbley, the teenager who pleaded guilty to the mass shooting at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit.
Accused of contributing to the deaths of four students killed by their then-15-year-old son in 2021, the Crumbleys are the first parents charged in a mass school shooting. Prosecutors aim to criminally hold them accountable for buying their son the gun used in the tragic event, marking a historic legal development.
“Generally, it’s not appropriate to suggest that parents shoulder full responsibility for their children’s crimes,” Caitlin Cavanagh, an associate professor in Michigan State’s School of Criminal Justice, said in an interview with the BBC. “But every case is different, and certainly understanding a child’s home background can help us understand their actions.”
In another case of a parent being prosecuted in connection with a mass shooting, Robert Crimo Jr. of Illinois pleaded guilty last month to seven misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct in connection with sponsoring applications for multiple guns for his son Robert Crimo III in 2019.
The now-23-year-old Crimo III is charged with killing seven people during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, last year. Authorities said the elder Crimo sponsored his son’s applications even after the then-teenager had been reported to police as threatening to “kill everyone.”
Crimo Jr., who was sentenced to 60 days in jail last November after his guilty pleadings, already has been released on good behavior after a month. The younger Crimo fired his attorneys this week, electing to represent himself, and has yet to go to trial.
The child in the Virginia case, described by his family as having an “acute disability,” was not charged for shooting Zwerner. With his mother in prison, he’ll reside with his great-grandfather until he turns 18 in the next 11 years.
