Monday 26 September 2022 06:08 PM Kentucky school mass shooter serving life sentence for killing three students ... trends now
A Kentucky man who blamed voices in his head for shooting dead three of his high school classmates and injuring five others will serve out the remainder of his life sentence after the state parole board denied his bid for freedom on Monday.
Michael Carneal, now 39, appeared briefly via video conference before the full Kentucky Parole Board in tan prison scrubs and glasses and listened to the seven-member panel vote down his request for early release.
Each member voted for the killer, who sprayed bullets from a semi-automatic rifle at a pray group that had gathered at the entrance of Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, on December 1, 1997, to 'serve out' his sentence of life behind bars.
Kentucky high school shooter, Michael Carneal, right, listens to the Parole Board vote to keep him in prison for the rest of his life
A Heath High School student screams at seeing the scene of a shooting at the school where fellow student Michael Carneal opened fire, leaving three students dead and five wounded on Dec. 1, 1997, near Paducah, Kentucky
Michael Carneal, 39, who was only 14 at the time, was serving a life sentence, but was granted an opportunity for parole at 25 years, the maximum sentence permitted for someone his age. His bid for release was denied on Monday
'Due to the seriousness of your crime – your crime involved a weapon, you had lives taken, and the seriousness, again – it is the decision of the parole board today to allow you to serve out the remainder of your sentence,' Kentucky Parole Board chairwoman Ladeidra Jones said Monday.
Carneal, who admitted last week during a preliminary meeting that he still heard the 'demonic' voices in his head that told him to harm himself and others, sat in a chair in front of a window shade in stark room of the Kentucky State Reformatory where he's held with his hands folded in front of him and nodded as the chair spoke.
'Yes, ma'am,' is all he said before getting up from the chair and exiting the video meeting.
Missy Jenkins Smith, who was shot by Carneal, is paralyzed and wheelchair-bound. She said Carneal should not be free
Michael Carneal, 39, seeks parole despite the fact that he still hears the voices that drove him to kill three classmates and wound five others
Last week, a two person panel met with Carneal to discuss his bid for release.
He said that as recently as 'a couple of days ago' he had heard voices in his head ordering him to throw himself down a flight of steps.
The gunman said that he had learned to ignore those voices.
'I know now that it's not something that I should do,' he told.
Carneal, whose inmate file lists his mental health prognosis as 'poor,' said he has been receiving therapy and taking psychiatric medications in
