Teen killer declared sane

Teen murderer declared sane.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. - A teenager convicted of murder in the deaths of two classmates was not insane at the time of the shootings and will go to prison instead of a mental hospital, a judge has ruled.

The judge said it was clear John Jason McLaughlin suffered “some sort of mental impairment.” But Judge Michael Kirk added that “numerous facts laid out in this case point to the defendant knowing his actions were morally wrong.”

Good. Never should someone's "mental impairment" make a difference. The ONLY thing that matters is if the killer knew that their actions were wrong.

The judge convicted McLaughlin, now 17, of first-degree murder in the death of Seth Bartell, 14, and second-degree murder in the slaying of Aaron Rollins, 17. The two were killed in 2003 at Rocori High School in Cold Spring.
The first-degree murder conviction means a mandatory sentence of life in prison, with parole possible after 30 years. Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 30.

I can hear the screams from the left already. "Rehabilitate him, we can't waste his life. Blah, blah, blah." He wasted his life when he pulled the trigger...not once but multiple times.

“It really didn’t matter what the judge came up with,” said Tom Rollins, Aaron’s father. “It’s not going to bring either of the boys back, and we’re going to have a hole in our families for the rest of our lives.”

Prosecutors portrayed McLaughlin as a chronic liar trying to escape responsibility for his crimes. They said he had a history of lying or exaggerating his own actions to everyone from parents to school friends.

The defense, though, presented him as a paranoid schizophrenic striking out at a perceived persecutor. McLaughlin said Bartell had teased him about acne since junior high.

This case is a good smack down of the stupid idea that being bullied allows brutal responses. The more society perpetuates the idea that bullying is so egregious that it has to be outlawed, etc, the more kids will think that being the victim of bullying is something that warrants a large response. Bullying happens, it happens in the adult world and in the schoolyard. It is a part of life that kids need to learn how to deal with. I learned from being bullied a good portion of my younger years. I learned how to read people's motives and intentions. I learned survival. I learned how to talk my way out of being pummelled frequently. I learned how to befriend the good hearted person that could kick the ass of the bullies. I learned how to deal with life that way.

The successful people in life were the bullied...because we learned important lessons. The bullies for the most part are the losers with jobs that you would not consider taking if your life depended on it. The exception is a successful bully. Stop fighting bullying and just make sure it does not become unreasonable or dangerous.

Defense lawyers argued that McLaughlin only meant to wound Bartell and did not mean to hurt the other student at all.

This is a load of crap. Just read the next 2 paragraphs.

The boy shot and wounded Bartell in a hallway, then fired another shot that missed him and hit Rollins, authorities said.

Prosecutors said McLaughlin then chased Bartell up the stairs and into the gym, and shot Bartell in the forehead. He died 16 days later.

Let's see if I understand McLaughlin's timeline. 1) He wants to wound Bartell and fires a shot into the forehead. McLaughlin is pretty damn stupid if he thinks this will only "wound" his victim. 2) I assume the first shot resulted in the victim falling down and some blood spilling somewhere...so why fire another shot?

McLaughlin is lucky that I was not on the bench for his case. That boy would not see the light of day. I would do the paperwork to make certain that parole would not be possible until the little demon was eligible for social security.