FORT WORTH, Texas — A tearful jury Thursday sentenced the 16-year-old who shot and killed a student at Arlington Lamar High School to 40 years behind bars, the maximum penalty the child could've received.
The shooter, whom WFAA will not identify because he's a juvenile, will spend three years in juvenile detention before he is eligible for parole. Judge Alex Kim will decide then whether to release the shooter or send him to adult prison to complete his sentence.
"If you show me while you're at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department that you've done everything you can, you are rehabilitated, and you are not a danger to the community, I will parole you," Kim told the 16-year-old.
If Kim instead elects to transfer the shooter to an adult facility, he would next be eligible for parole in 2033.
The 16-year-old pleaded “true” to one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted capital murder. In juvenile court, a suspect enters a true plea instead of pleading guilty.
He admitted to twice firing a shotgun into a crowd of students sitting outside Lamar High School on March 20, 2023. Buckshot struck 16-year-old Ja'Shawn Poirier in the neck and grazed another student in the chin.
The surviving victim said she is "content" with the jury's decision.
"It feels like he does deserve it, even though he's a child," the teenager said. "It is the consequence he's earned based off his actions."
After three days of testimony, jurors deliberated for about an hour. They handed down the maximum penalty soon after prosecutors told the panel it'd be "on you" if the 16-year-old hurt someone else upon release from a lighter sentence.
"If you do anything other than the most you can do, you'll spend a lifetime watching the news and hoping you never see his name," prosecutor Lloyd Whelchel said during closing arguments.
The state's attorneys attempted to paint the 16-year-old shooter as uncaring and likely to reoffend. The boy cried when Whelchel called him a psycopath.
"Evil comes in all forms," Whelchel said, gesturing toward the teen. "That's what he is and that's what he did."
Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors that more students could've been hurt in the shooting. The 16-year-old fired two shotgun shells containing nine pellets each into the crowd.
"But for the grace of God, Ja'Shawn was the only casualty," prosecutor Lee Sorrells said. "That's one too many."
The state's attorneys also told jurors they would send a message to other potential school shooters by sentencing the 16-year-old to 40 years.
The defense said the 16-year-old should be punished beyond probation, but asked jurors to show mercy.
A psychologist who'd evaluated the shooter Thursday testified the boy has an IQ score of 74, lower than 96% of his peers. The child also showed signs of persistent depressive disorder, PTSD, conduct disorder, and borderline intellectual functioning.
For days, the teen's attorneys told jurors he "raised himself."
The 16-year-old moved from Louisiana to Arlington to be with his father in 2018. The child's mother remained in Baton Rouge with his siblings.
"You know he wondered what he did to make his mother want to keep his sister but not him," defense attorney Lisa Herrick told jurors.
In a key moment Wednesday, the 16-year-old's mother told jurors she had three children. After cross-examination, she admitted to having a fourth child.
"She sat up here and denied to you the existence of one of her children," Herrick said in closing. "He grew up in a household with a lying, manipulative mother and a father who was either gone at work or drunk."
The boy's father, a felon, was recently sentenced to federal prison for illegally possessing the firearm the teen used in the shooting.
Poirier's mother, Rashone Jacob, also testified Wednesday. She told jurors her son's things are in storage and she's not yet ready to get rid of his belongings.
"It's just hard to believe this even happened," Jacob said. "I'm technically still trying to wrap my mind around this and I'm stuck in this nightmare, trying to come out of it."
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