Second pull the trigger, the killer’s done, and he now masturbates in front of her and laughs. Follow the orders. He looked the victim’s family in the eyes and cursed them out in open court. Then, unbuttoned his shirt to reveal one word written across his chest. A lot of people have contacted the prosecutor and from Lake County Prosecutor’s Office.
This is the story of T.J. Lane and the Chardon High School shooting. All right, what we’re dealing with here is a disgusting human being. And this is confirmed what we have known all along, that this was a cold, calculated, premeditated killing. On February 27th, 2012, 17-year-old Thomas T.J.
Lane arrived at Chardon High School in Ohio at around 7:30 in the morning. The cafeteria was filled with students going about their normal routine. The defendant bought a T-shirt with the word killer on it 7 days before the shooting. He sent a text message about a school shooting 6 days before the shooting. He took his uncle’s gun the day before the shooting.
But what unfolded that morning wasn’t impulsive. It was planned. The defendant went to the school that morning and sat in the cafeteria and stared at his victims for 8 minutes. During that time, his victims were doing nothing but talking, hanging around with their friends, and being kids. No one bothered or provoked the defendant in any way.
The defendant then opened fire. He discharged 10 shots, and despite his claims to police that the victims were random strangers, the evidence told a very different story. Lane was arrested shortly after nearby, having dropped both the gun and a knife he was carrying. The defendant then opened fire, not aimlessly or randomly.
The first bullet was a direct shot to the back of the head of his victim while he was talking to his friends. He even admitted that he tried to shoot them in the head. One of his victims, after being shot twice, struggled to run down the hall and away from the cafeteria. The defendant chased him down and delivered his final shot to the back of his neck. Five students were struck.
Daniel Parmertor, 16, died that same day. Demetrius Hewlin, 16, and Russell King Jr., 17, died the following day. Nick Walczak, 17, was left paralyzed. Two others, Nate Mueller and Joy Rickers, sustained less critical wounds, but escaped with their lives. He still refuses to offer any explanation why he did this.
The only explanation I can offer to the court is that he’s an evil person. Two teachers, Frank Hall and Joseph Ricci, rushed toward the danger rather than away from it, chasing Lane out of the building and tending to the wounded. Lane was arrested shortly after nearby, having dropped both the gun and the knife he was carrying.
Three families had just lost their sons, and the nightmare was only beginning. The day after the shooting, on February 28th, 2012, Thomas Lane appeared before Judge Timothy Grendell in Geauga County Juvenile Court. Present in the court today is the juvenile uh Thomas Michael Lane III, uh represented by attorneys Robert Ferronaci, Mark Lavelle, and Teresa Tolson.
Lane sat subdued, speaking only when directly addressed, offering nothing more than quiet yes or responses to the judge. There was no visible emotion, no remorse, no acknowledgement of the devastation he had caused just 24 hours earlier. For the families watching, it must have felt like staring at a wall.
Uh at trial, you can remain totally silent, and your silence cannot be used against you. Do you understand? Yes, sir. You have a right to confront and cross-examine any witness that testifies against you at trial. Do you understand? I understand. You have the right to compel all witnesses to appear and to testify on your behalf at trial.
Do you understand? Yes, I do, sir. Judge Grendel ordered Lane detained at a juvenile facility for 15 days while formal charges were prepared. But what the families of the victims witnessed on March 19th, 2013 was something none of them was prepared for. Lane entered the courtroom wearing a neat blue dress shirt.
But as the hearing got underway, he slowly unbuttoned it, peeling it back to reveal a white t-shirt underneath. There he sat T.J. Lane unbuttoning his blue shirt revealing the word killer. Then he made a vulgar gesture and a vulgar comment to the victims’ families. Lane wore another shirt with the word killer on it during the shooting spree.
I prosecutor’s office, Karen Kowall. The same shirt, reportedly, that he had worn the morning of the shooting itself. He wanted everyone in that room to see it. And just um let me ask you, how shocked were you when you saw t-shirt today? I think everyone in that courtroom was shocked today. Yeah, that was uh something that that was not expected and and something that I hope no one uh ever has to experience again.
Then, Lane stood up to speak. His attorney, Ian Friedman, urged him to stay silent. Lane ignored him entirely. What came out of his mouth next was so vile, so calculated in its cruelty that it silenced the courtroom and defined his legacy forever. Not just as a killer, but as someone who took pride in it.
All right, this my client saying to pull the trigger to kill his friends and then masturbates in their memory. All right, hey, that’s all your client has to say, Mr. Friedman? The terms of imprisonment imposed for all six of the counts are to run consecutive to one another. Such that on the three aggravated murders, the defendant will serve three life prison and they will all run consecutively to one another and to the prison terms imposed on the other three counts, which themselves run consecutively to one
another. With three consecutive life sentences handed down, most assumed Thomas Lane would disappear behind prison walls forever. For a while, he did. But in September 2014, Lane managed to escape from the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution in Lima, Ohio. He did scale the our perimeter fence, and again, this is an ongoing investigation.
One inmate was quickly apprehended while Lane was on the run for nearly 6 hours. He was eventually cornered just 100 yards away from the prison where he escaped. When the victim’s family stood up to deliver their impact statements, Thomas Lane sat there and smiled. I will miss Demetrius, and I have enough memories to last me a lifetime.
That child stole my baby’s life, and he should never be able to do this to anyone ever again. Thank you. Not a nervous smile, not the uncomfortable expression of someone struggling to face the weight of what they had done. It was a deliberate, contemptuous smirk fixed on his face as grieving parents poured their hearts out just feet away from him.
I hate you for the pain you have caused, Nick. You chased him down the hall and fired the last bullet that paralyzed him. You’re lucky I have to read this cuz I’d be staring at you the whole time. Why? Why did you do it? Why? As a mother described the moment she found out her son was never coming home, Lane smiled.
As a father tried to put into words the silence that now filled a bedroom down the hall, Lane smiled. He made eye contact. He held it. He kept smiling. Why would you want to hurt him? You You don’t know kind. I will have to eventually forgive you. Otherwise, you will haunt me. You will never ever be in my thoughts after this.
For the families, it was a cruelty layered on top of cruelty. Losing a child is unimaginable. Being forced to grieve in front of the person responsible while he grins at your pain is something else entirely. Something that defies Something that defies explanation. Something that cemented Thomas Lane’s character more clearly than any verdict ever could.
Cuz he felt sorry for you. I feel sorry for you. I want you to endure years and years of pain and abuse, which is in my opinion not harsh enough. Lane remains incarcerated today, serving out his three life sentences with no possibility of parole. The [snorts] families of Shardon continue to live with the consequences of one morning that lasted only minutes, but changed everything.
