MUSKOGEE, OKLA. ? Seth Trickey was released Wednesday to live with his grandparents in Lawrence, Kan., nearly four years after the former honor student opened fire and wounded five of his Fort Gibson Middle School classmates.

Muskogee County Associate District Judge Tom Alford ordered that Trickey, 16, remain in state juvenile custody but immediately be placed with his maternal grandparents, Robert and Marilyn Martin. The Martins are retired teachers.

“That was the requirement — that he not be here after sundown,” Alford said.

The judge said Trickey’s move was the best solution because he had completed his state Office of Juvenile Affairs treatment program in a group home and could have been released outright. The transfer was also recommended by OJA officials.

The teenager will undergo another psychological treatment program while in Kansas. That state’s juvenile officials also will make weekly contact with Trickey, according to an OJA report.

Keeping him technically under OJA custody allows authorities control if something should go wrong in Kansas, Alford said. State juvenile officials must notify Alford before moving Trickey if he violates his rules of placement.

Trickey also will not be allowed to leave his home county overnight without the judge’s approval. He also is not allowed to return to Fort Gibson.

“I don’t think it’d be a good idea,” Alford said. “There’s still a lot of high emotions on this deal.”

Trickey was 13 on Dec. 6, 1999, when he stepped into the school courtyard, pulled his father’s 9 mm handgun from a backpack and emptied the clip on his fleeing classmates. No one was killed in the attack, but one victim, then 12-year-old Savana Knowles, was shot in the face.

Three others — Billy Railey, Cody Chronister and Brad Schindel — were wounded in either the arms or legs. Another boy, Dakota Baker, was grazed by a bullet.

Trickey has been in juvenile custody since admitting his guilt in May 2000. He went to Texas briefly this year for a private treatment program but was returned within months.

On Wednesday, he took his first steps outside the Muskogee County Courthouse — without armed escort — in nearly four years.

“We’re pleased he’s going to live with family members,” Trickey’s Tulsa attorney, Stephen Novick, said. “Sooner or later, he was going to be released, when he’s 18 or 19.

“At some point, there has to be a step taken with any juvenile delinquent to get them back into the community,” he said.

Trickey, who will turn 17 early next month, earned his high school degree while in OJA custody. He enrolled in some college courses while in a Weatherford group home.

Novick could not say what the teenager’s plans are now.

Future unknown

“He may go to college, if he can get admitted,” he said. “It’s either work or go to school.”

Kansas juvenile authorities completed a home study of the grandparents’ residence before approving the transfer, according to reports. Oklahoma also sets specific rules for any placement, OJA spokeswoman Rhonda Burgess said.

For instance, the family must not have a gun in the home, Novick said.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Sejin Brooks protested Trickey’s transfer. He argued that Trickey should have stayed in treatment at an OJA facility.

“The state objected to the recommendation … under the belief that Mr. Trickey has not been rehabilitated. He has not received all the treatment he could receive under the system,” Brooks said. “Our office believes Mr. Trickey has not taken responsibility for his actions.”

‘Face the consequences’

At various times, Trickey has blamed his violent outburst on a military obsession, academic pressures, lack of attention from his parents and a fascination with the Columbine school massacre. He apologized indirectly to his victims during an earlier hearing.

One victim’s father, Russ Knowles, attended Wednesday’s hearing. He also thinks Trickey hasn’t paid a steep enough price for shooting Savana and the others.

“I just hope they made the right decision,” Knowles said. “I don’t agree with it because of the severity of the crime.

“That’s always been my stand — you face the consequences.”

Knowles noted that the judge told Trickey how fortunate he was that no one died in the shootings.

“Only by an act of God,” Knowles said. “He told him if circumstances were a little bit different, he’d be spending the rest of his life in prison.”

Trickey’s next review hearing will be in February.