Teen who planned Columbine-style attack sentenced to 10 months

Tobin "Toby" Kerns was sentenced to 10 months in prison Tuesday on each count for his role in planning a Columbine-style attack on Marshfield High School along with alleged co-conspirator Joseph Nee.

Kerns, 19, was found guilty in September of charges of conspiracy to commit murder and the threatened use of deadly weapons at a school in connection with the planned attack. He was indicted in 2004 at age 16 on the two charges in addition to a charge of promotion of anarchy, which Justice Louis Coffin dismissed.

The sentences will run concurrently, and with credit for the 155 days already served, Kerns will serve about five months in an adult house of correction. Kerns could have been sentenced to up to 20 years on each charge.

The Plymouth County District Attorney's office was seeking a 2 1/2-year sentence on each count, with the sentence for the conspiracy charge suspended, but Assistant District Attorney John McLaughlin said the sentence was fair.

"(Coffin) did everything you want a judge to do," McLaughlin said. "He agreed with the Commonwealth in the end that an adult sentence was appropriate."

Denise Lunn, mother of Kerns' former girlfriend Bethany Lunn, said she was happy Kerns got a sentence less than what the prosecution was seeking, but didn't agree with the court's decision and does not think justice was served for the community.

"The criminal justice system is totally broken," she said.

Kerns was tried in Juvenile Court over five days ending Oct. 20, 2006, but Judge Louis Coffin declined to issue a verdict until the Supreme Judicial Court ruled on which statute to apply regarding the communication of a threat. On Aug. 9, the SJC agreed with the prosecution, led by District Attorney Tim Cruz, to adopt a stricter statute passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which said a threat can be communicated to any other person and does not have to be communicated directly to the potential target.

The ruling was the first of its kind regarding the new statute.

Kerns was arrested for his connection to the plot after alleged co-conspirators Joseph Nee, Daniel Farley, and Joseph Sullivan told police of Kerns' involvement. Nee was arrested in October 2004, after Farley and Sullivan implicated him in the planned attack.

Farley and Sullivan received immunity from the prosecution under the Fifth Amendment, fearing that their testimonies would incriminate them.

Nee came to live with the Kerns family in the spring of 2004. Ben Kerns, Toby's father, said the older boy was a bad influence on his son. Nee was reportedly interested in Nazism and wore a homemade shirt with the date of the Columbine attacks and the phrase "Remember the Heroes" written on it in German.

Kerns' father committed him to a mental health facility in June 2004. Ben Kerns was not at his son's sentencing.

Police found materials in Kerns' home outlining a planned attack on Marshfield High School, including a binder with maps of the school, and evidence in Kerns' home that he had visited instructional Web sites for how to make explosives and attempted to order guns.

Nee is expected to go to trial in February 2008, where he will be tried as an adult on the same charges as Kerns.