Watch: Local student who planned school shooting apologizes before sentencing

(WJW) — The former West Geauga student who brought a gun onto school grounds, who authorities said planned a school shooting, will spend at least the next eight years in prison.

Brandon M. Morrisette , 19, of Lyndhurst, was indicted last year in the April 2023 incident. He recently pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder and having a weapon in a school safety zone.

According to authorities, he planned a school shooting in the West Geauga High School library, because “it would have the greatest concentration of students and the largest impact,” Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz said Wednesday.

Though Morrissette brought an unloaded handgun and multiple loaded magazines to the school, his defense attorney Henry Hilow on Wednesday said the teen didn’t intend to harm others — instead, to die by suicide.

“I truly and sincerely am sorry for my actions,” Morrissette told the court on Wednesday, through tears. “I did not mean to scare you all and I’m sorry for that. At the time I was not right mentally, and I was going through a lot. I was still processing my mother’s death from cancer in 2020. I have always had mental health issues when it comes to depression and anxiety.

“I just wish you were all able to know me as a better person, and not who I was in the dark time I went through,” he continued. “I promise if you give me a second chance, I will do whatever it takes to turn my life around.”

The teen’s father also spoke at the Wednesday hearing, calling his son a “respectful, loving young man.”

Authorities on April 3, 2023, were tipped off to the gun when a live bullet was found in a bathroom. Students and personnel were made to shelter in place. Hilow on Wednesday said Morrissette left the bullet there, intending for it to be found.

“He wanted someone to find him,” Hilow said.

Flaiz said Morrissette, while speaking to authorities and medical personnel, at times denied the shooting plan and at other times admitted to it, saying he had been planning a shooting for years. An investigation into “warning behaviors” indicating the teen was planning violence showed Morrissette identified with past school shooters.

“Morrissette had a great deal of anger toward those who he felt mistreated and bullied him,” Flaiz said.

Morrissette previously entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity .

Geauga County Common Pleas Court Judge Carolyn Paschke said two separate psychological evaluations showed Morrissette knew his actions were wrong.

“This was not a snap, spur-of-the-moment decision,” she said Wednesday. “The evidence showed you had a plan.”

Judge Paschke sentenced Morrissette to serve at least eight years in prison, up to a potential 12 years, on the attempted murder charge. He was also sentenced to one year in prison on the firearm charge, which will be served simultaneously.

He was credited for more than a year spent in jail awaiting trial.

“We know that no one was physically hurt by your actions that day, but we can’t say that nobody was hurt. The entire community was terrorized. When that shelter-in-place occurred, it was terrifying for the students; it was terrifying for the faculty,” she said. “Some of the officers that responded that day also responded to the shooting at Chardon High School. You can’t say no harm was done to them.”

The firearm, a 9-millimeter Smith & Wesson Model 910, was forfeited.

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