St. Cloud, Minn. — A 17-year-old who gunned down two classmates at school was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison, with no possibility for parole until he's well over 50.
"You devastated two families, you damaged a community's sense of safety and you destroyed your own and your parents' hope for the future," the judge told Jason McLaughlin.
McLaughlin was convicted of first-degree murder in the September 2003 shooting death of 14-year-old Seth Bartell, and second-degree murder for killing Aaron Rollins, 17.
Witnesses at his trial described how McLaughlin brought his father's pistol to Rocori High School in Cold Spring and shot Bartell, causing a minor wound. A second shot accidentally killed Rollins.
McLaughlin then chased Bartell up a flight of stairs and fatally shot him, witnesses said.
McLaughlin's mother argued that a life sentence would deny her son treatment for mental illness. But relatives of the slain students said he deserved the longest sentence possible.
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