Ohio school shooter T.J. Lane, the teenager who killed three students at Chardon High School and injured three others a year ago, smirked and flashed a middle finger to the victims' families as he was sentenced to life without parole on Tuesday.
Wearing a white T-shirt with "killer" scrawled across it in all capital letters, Lane smiled as his victims' families read their statements, which called him "repulsive," wished him an "extremely slow, torturous death," and said he should be locked away "like an animal."
He then made a brief statement, before giving the relatives the middle finger.
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Lane has reportedly been stone-faced and silent in all other court proceedings.
"Frankly, I wasn't prepared for this," the prosecutor told the court after Lane's gesture. "This is confirming what we have known all along, that this was a cold, calculated, premeditated killing."
Lane, now 18, was sentenced to three life terms without the possibility of parole for
the Feb. 27, 2012, shootings at the high school in northeast Ohio. Police said he fired his uncle's .22-caliber pistol 10 times in the school's cafeteria, killing Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, both 16, and Russell King Jr., 17.
He also wounded Nicholas Walczak, who is paralyzed from the waist down and remains in a wheelchair; Nate Mueller, who was grazed on the ear; and Joy Rickers, who was treated and released after the shooting.
Lane was not a student at Chardon High School, but was reportedly in the area waiting for a bus to his alternative high school.
Because he was 17 at the time of the crime, the case was initially referred to juvenile court because defense attorneys said Lane suffered from hallucinations, psychosis, and fantasies, but a judge ruled he was competent to stand trial as an adult.
On Feb. 26, Lane pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder, and one count of felonious assault. He admitted to the crime, but gave no motive, investigators said.
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Lane was not subject to the death penalty because of his age at the time the crime was committed.
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