NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The mom of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday and may just face jail time for the usage of marijuana whilst proudly owning a firearm, which is prohibited underneath U.S. legislation.
Deja Taylor’s son took her handgun to university and shot Abby Zwerner in her first-grade school room in January, severely wounding the educator. Investigators later discovered just about an oz of marijuana in Taylor’s bed room and proof of widespread drug use in her textual content messages and paraphernalia.
The federal fees in opposition to Taylor seem to be moderately uncommon and are available at a time when marijuana is prison in lots of states, together with Virginia.
Some U.S. courts in different portions of the rustic even have dominated in opposition to the federal legislation that bans drug customers from having weapons. But the legislation stays in impact in lots of states and has been used to fee others together with Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia argued in courtroom filings that Taylor’s “chronic, persistent and … life-affecting abuse extends this case far beyond any occasional and/or recreational use.”
Prosecutors said they’ll seek a 21-month prison sentence.
“This case is not a marijuana case,” they wrote. “It is a case that underscores the inherently dangerous nature and circumstances that arise from the caustic cocktail of mixing consistent and prolonged controlled substance use with a lethal firearm.”
Taylor agreed in June to a negotiated accountable plea in U.S. District Court in Newport News within the state’s southeast coastal area. She has been convicted of the usage of marijuana whilst proudly owning a gun in addition to mendacity about her drug use on a federal shape when she purchased the firearm.
Taylor’s legal professionals mentioned they are going to ask for probation and residential confinement, in step with courtroom filings. They argued that Taylor wishes counseling for problems that come with schizoaffective dysfunction, a situation that stocks signs with schizophrenia and bipolar dysfunction.
They additionally mentioned she wishes remedy for marijuana dependancy.
“Addiction is a disease and incarceration is not the cure,” her legal professionals wrote.
Taylor’s legal professionals additionally argued that the U.S. Supreme Court may just in the end strike down the federal ban on drug customers proudly owning weapons. For instance, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans dominated in August that drug customers shouldn’t routinely be banned from having weapons.
Other decrease courts have upheld the ban, and the Justice Department has appealed the fifth Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court. The prime courtroom hasn’t but determined whether or not to absorb the case.
“Ms. Taylor is deeply saddened, extremely despondent, and completely remorseful for the unintended consequences and mistakes that led to this horrible shooting,” her legal professionals wrote.
Taylor’s sentencing may just be offering the primary measure of responsibility for January’s taking pictures, which revived a countrywide discussion about gun violence and roiled the army shipbuilding town of Newport News.
Taylor, 26, nonetheless faces a separate sentencing in December at the state stage for legal kid forget. And Zwerner is suing the college device for $40 million, alleging that directors overlooked a couple of warnings the boy had a gun.
Immediately after the taking pictures, the kid advised a studying specialist who restrained him: “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I got my mom’s gun last night,” in step with seek warrants.
Taylor’s son advised government he received the gun by means of mountain climbing onto a drawer to succeed in the highest of a cloth wardrobe, the place the firearm used to be in his mother’s handbag. Taylor first of all advised investigators that she had secured her gun with a cause lock, however investigators by no means discovered one.
Taylor’s grandfather has had complete custody of her son, now age 7, for the reason that taking pictures, in step with courtroom paperwork.
It wasn’t the primary time Taylor’s gun used to be fired in public, prosecutors wrote. Taylor shot at her son’s father in December after seeing him together with his female friend.
“u kouldve killed me,” the daddy mentioned to Taylor in a textual content message, in step with a temporary from prosecutors.
Sometime after her son shot his teacher, Taylor smoked two blunts, prosecutors added. She additionally failed drug checks whilst anticipating sentencing at the federal fees.
Taylor’s legal professionals mentioned Taylor “vulnerably stands earlier than this courtroom humiliated, contrite and saddened.”
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Associated Press reporter Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this file.
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