A Kentucky man who killed three fellow students and wounded five others when he was 14 years old will have to spend the rest of his life in prison without another opportunity to seek parole, the Kentucky Parole Board voted Monday.
Michael Carneal, now 39, told parole board members last week that he would live with his parents and continue his mental health treatment if they agreed to release him. He admitted that he still hears voices like the ones that told him to steal a neighbor's pistol and fire it into the crowded lobby of Heath High School in 1997. However, Carneal said that with therapy and medication, he has learned to control his behavior.
The board, meeting in Frankfort, voted 7-0 to deny parole, after deliberating in private for about 30 minutes. Kentucky Parole Board Chair Ladeidra Jones asked each member for their vote. Jones then told Carneal that "due to the seriousness of your crime" he would serve out his life sentence in prison.
Carneal said only, "Yes, ma'am" and quickly left.
Missy Jenkins Smith, who had considered Carneal a friend before she was paralyzed by one of his bullets, said she couldn't sleep Sunday night because she was so anxious for the decision. She said she was in shock after hearing it.
"It's so hard to believe I don't have to worry about it again," she said.
Jenkins Smith watched the hearing from her home in Kirksey with another victim, Kelly Hard Alsip and their families.
Jenkins Smith, Alsip, others who were wounded in the shooting and relatives of those who were killed spoke to the parole board panel last week. Most expressed a wish for Carneal to spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jones earlier told Carneal their "number one charge is to maintain public safety."
Speaking by video conference from the Kentucky State Reformatory last week, Carneal apologized to his victims. Killed in the Dec. 1, 1997, shooting were 17-year-old Jessica James, 15-year-old Kayce Steger, and 14-year-old Nicole Hadley, who Carneal said was a "very good friend" to him.
Carneal was given the maximum sentence for someone his age at the time, life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
This screen shot from a Zoom video hearing shows Michael Carneal on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 at Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, Ky. Carneal killed three students and wounded five more in a school shooting 25 years ago. He told a parole panel on Tuesday that he is still hearing voices like the ones that told him to steal a pistol and shoot into a crowded high school lobby in 1997. (Kentucky Parole Board via AP)
Missy Jenkins Smith poses for a photo at her home on Sept. 9, 2022, in Kirksey, Ky. Smith was paralyzed from the chest down after being shot by Michael Carneal in 1997. Carneal, serving a life sentence, has an upcoming parole hearing. (Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal via AP)
Missy Jenkins Smith, right, talks to reporters at her home in Kirksey, Ky., on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, while waiting for a decision from a parole board panel on whether the person who paralyzed her in a 1997 school shooting will go free. Michael Carneal also shot Kelly Hard Alsip (third from right) when they were all students at Heath High School in Paducah. On Tuesday they watched a video stream of Carneal's parole hearing from Jenkins Smith's living room. A two-person panel of the Kentucky Parole Board postponed any decision until Monday, when the full board will meet. (AP Photo/Travis Loller)