A Virginia mother held liable for her 6-year-old son’s shooting of his elementary school teacher this year was handed a two-year sentence Friday on a state charge of felony child neglect.
Deja Taylor, 26, could have faced as many as five years in prison, but was given a shorter sentence, The Associated Press reported. A plea deal with prosecutors led them to drop a misdemeanor charge of reckless storage of a firearm; they had suggested as little as six months in prison, but the judge did not have to follow that.
Taylor has remained behind bars after she pleaded guilty in June to a charge of using marijuana while owning a gun, which is illegal under federal law, and was sentenced last month to 21 months in prison.
Friday’s hearing winds down one aspect of the case, which stunned the city of Newport News, drew national attention to school safety and gun violence, and prompted the ouster of the schools superintendent and an assistant principal.
Authorities say first-grade teacher Abigail Zwerner was intentionally shot on Jan. 6 by one of her students at Richneck Elementary School, where she escorted her panicked class to safety. A bullet ripped through Zwerner’s left hand, rupturing bones before it lodged in her upper chest, leaving behind fragments. Three months after the classroom shooting, she filed a $40 million lawsuit against the school district claiming administators failed to listen to multiple warnings from staff and students that the child had a handgun.
More on Virginia teacher shooting
On the morning of the shooting, Taylor believed the gun was in her purse with the trigger lock installed and left on top of her bedroom dresser, according to a probable cause statement. She added that the key for the lock is kept under her bedroom mattress.
Marijuana was found during a court-ordered search of the home in the wake of the shooting, federal prosecutors said.
“A search of Taylor’s phone revealed numerous text messages illustrating the pervasive scope of Taylor’s…
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