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NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia was sentenced Friday to 2 years in prison for felony child neglect by a judge who chastised her for abdicating her responsibilities as a parent.
The sentence given to Deja Taylor by Circuit Court Judge Christopher Papile was much harsher than the maximum six-month sentence prosecutors agreed to recommend as part of a plea deal & also surpassed the high end of advisory state sentencing guidelines.
Taylor, 26, pleaded guilty to a single count of felony neglect in August. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor count of recklessly storing a firearm.
Papile said the sentencing guidelines did not take into account the psychological & emotional impact the shooting had on first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner or other students & staff at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News.
Zwerner was critically injured when the boy fired a single shot at her, striking her hand & chest, breaking bones & puncturing a lung. She spent weeks in the hospital, has had 5 surgeries & has said she is so psychologically scarred by the shooting that she does not plan to return to teaching.
“We are lucky that it was not somebody killed at Richneck Elementary,” Judge Papile said.
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