Freed teen killer jailed on weapons charge

A man who at 13 helped shoot dead five people in a school ambush that shocked America has been jailed for four years on an unrelated weapons charge.

Judge Jimm Hendren expressed dismay yesterday that Mitchell Johnson had not taken advantage of the second chance he received on his release after years in custody.

Now 24, he was 13 at the time of the 1998 shootings at Jonesboro's Westside Middle School, Arkansas.

"No matter what I do today, you will have a life to live," said the judge. "Those who died in 1998 will not."

Johnson had faced a maximum sentence of 10 years and a £138,000 fine after being convicted in January of possessing a firearm while being a user of or addicted to a controlled substance. He also was sentenced to three years of supervised release.

Johnson was already held in jail on separate state charges, accused of taking a debit card left by a disabled man at the petrol station where he worked.

In court in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Johnson rocked back and forth in his chair, his hand clasped in his lap. When asked if he had a statement, he said that "not a day goes by that I don't think about what happened" - nearly the same comments he made to deputies who arrested him during a traffic stop on 1 January last year.

In 1998, Johnson and classmate Andrew Golden stole guns from Golden's grandfather and a white van belonging to Johnson's stepfather. They waited in camouflage atop a wooded hill after Golden triggered a fake fire alarm.

They opened fire as classmates and teachers left the school. Shannon Wright, an English teacher, died while shielding student Emma Pittman from the bullets. Pupils Natalie Brooks, 11; Paige Herring, 12; Stephanie Johnson, 12; and Britthney Varner, 11, died of their wounds. Ten others were wounded.

The US government had held Johnson and Golden until they were 21 after the Jonesboro shootings. At the time of the school massacre, Arkansas had the means to hold the pair only until they were 18.

After his release, Johnson spent time in several states before returning to Arkansas to work at a Wal-Mart store.

On the night of his traffic-stop arrest, he told deputies he planned on moving to California to start a new life.