School shooter sorry, laments 'won't go to prom,' pen pal says

JONESBORO — Letters sent from prison by convicted Westside Middle School killer Mitchell Johnson to a friend and former schoolmate portray Mitchell as regretful about the 1998 shooting that left four students and a teacher dead and 10 others wounded.

"Mitchell said he was sorry and prayed for their souls," Colby Brooks, 13, said Wednesday about the letters he has received from Mitchell over the past four months. "He said he lost friends, too."

Mitchell, who turns 15 Wednesday, has been incarcerated at the state Youth Services Division's juvenile facility at Alexander since last August.

He has sent Colby six letters since April, offering glimpses of sorrow in some and of upbeat plans in others. Although two years apart in age, the boys were friends before the shooting. The two often attended each other's football and basketball games at school.

The letter exchange began when Colby offhandedly told Monte Johnson, Mitchell's brother, to give Mitchell his address if he wanted to write to him. Colby said he didn't believe his friend would respond.

"It was a surprise," Colby said about receiving Mitchell's first letter. Since then, the two have written regularly.

"At first I was nervous," said Debbie Brooks, Colby's mother. "I was apprehensive about Colby writing to him. Colby told me that people needed to realize that Mitchell was a kid, too. He was paying for all this, too."

Not all of the letters have been easy to take. Once, Colby said, Mitchell wrote that he was upset that he was in jail.

"He wrote, 'I won't go to a prom, kiss a girl or have sex with one for six more years,' " Colby said.

"That bothered me. That offended me. I wrote back that Natalie [Brooks, 11, no relation, who was killed in the shooting] and Paige [Herring, 12, also killed) will never go to a prom. He wrote back and apologized for being so selfish."

Colby was in the school's gymnasium during the March 24, 1998, shooting. He said he ran outside and saw schoolmates falling as they were shot. That morning, Natalie had told him that she and he could "go together." Colby keeps a photograph of Natalie in his room.

In one letter, Mitchell "said he wasn't mad at anybody," Colby said about a reason for the shooting. "He doesn't know why it happened. He said, 'Something came over me.' He said he wished he had thought it out better that day. He wishes it never happened."

Mitchell, then 13, and Andrew Golden, then 11, were quickly apprehended near the school after the shooting. Both were later convicted, as youthful offenders, of five counts of capital murder and 10 counts of first-degree battery and sentenced to the juvenile facility in Alexander until they are at least 18.

State law allows youthful offenders to be held until they are 21, but Arkansas lacks a facility to hold them after they turn 18. Gov. Mike Huckabee promised last year to build a facility to hold Mitchell and other youthful offenders for the three additional years.

Joe Quinn, a spokesman for the Department of Human Services, said officials at the Alexander center read letters to or from Mitchell before passing them on. For the most part, Mitchell's mail goes through uncensored.

"The letters get perused," Quinn said. "There is a criteria. We pull threatening or hurtful letters. If a kid here who has committed a crime and then writes a letter to gloat about it to the victims, we'll pull it." He said letters between Mitchell and Colby have met the prison's mail criteria.

"On the face value, it is a classmate who seems willing to exchange correspondence with Mitchell," Quinn said. He said the center doesn't log the volume of mail that prisoners receive or send.

"He's always writing letters," said Gretchen Woodard, Mitchell's mother. "I'm so grateful for that. The boy is always needing stamps if that tells you anything about how much he is writing."

Woodard said she believes that her son's letters are a way for him to cope with what he did

"It's Mitch's way of healing," she said. "He's been trying to work through this and put his life back together again. He honestly misses those kids and that teacher."

In the shooting, Andrew set a false fire alarm in the middle school building shortly before noon and ran to hide with Mitchell in nearby woods, according to police.

When students and teachers filed out of the building, the two boys began shooting at them with a .30-caliber carbine and a .30-06 rifle. Testimony at their Aug. 11, 1998, trial, indicated that Mitchell fired five shots with the .30-06 rifle. He fatally shot English teacher Shannon Wright, 32, and injured three students. A ballistics expert testified that the bullets that killed Stephanie Johnson, 12, may have been fired from Mitchell's rifle, but tests of bullet fragments were inconclusive.

During the trial, Mitchell hung his head and read a letter of apology he had written to victims' families. Mitchell said he wasn't targeting anyone. "We were not going to shoot at anyone in particular," he said. "I really thought we would scare them.

"I am sorry. I hope anyone who listens to these word knows how truly sorry I am," he said.

After a year in jail, Mitchell often writes about prison life and how he misses the "free world" as he calls life outside of prison.

Colby said he can tell by Mitchell's letters whether Mitchell is having a good day or is depressed.

"He seems more mature than before," Colby said. "Some days he is down on himself, but other days he's OK. I believe he is remorseful for what he did."

Colby said he rereads his letters responding to Mitchell's before sending them to ensure that they won't offend Mitchell. "I try to see him as the Mitchell Johnson before March 24, 1998," he said.

Mitchell also has written Colby to ask about dying and going to heaven. He has also asked Colby if Colby had difficulty "writing to a murderer."

"He said he wants to go to heaven, but he knows he did an awful thing," Colby said. "I told him if he asked for forgiveness from God and meant it, he would go to heaven."

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