Mom of 6-year-old who shot Virginia teacher gets 2 years in prison

Mother of 6-year-old who shot teacher in Virginia gets 2 years in prison for child neglect

A woman in a black and white outfit walks with a man in a suit.

By BEN FINLEY and DENISE LAVOIE

Associated Press

Dec. 15, 2023 12:09 PM PT

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The mother of a Virginia 6-year-old who shot his teacher was sentenced to two years in prison forfelony child neglect, nearly a year after her son used her gun to critically wound the educator.

Friday’s sentencing was the second time Deja Taylor was held to account for the classroom shooting, which stunned the nation and shook the military shipbuilding city of Newport News.

The state sentence she received Friday from Circuit Court Judge Christopher Papile was stiffer than what is called for in state sentencing guidelines and harsher than the joint sentencing recommendation of six months that prosecutors and Taylor’s lawyers had agreed to in a plea deal.

Taylor was sentenced in November to 21 months in federal prison for using marijuana while owning a gun, which is illegal under U.S. law. The combination of her state and federal sentences amounts to a total punishment of nearly four years behind bars.

Taylor’s son told authorities he got his mother’s 9-millimeter handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom’s purse. He concealed the weapon in his backpack and then his pocket before shooting his teacher, Abby Zwerner, in front of her first-grade class.

Taylor initially told investigators she had secured her gun with a trigger lock, but investigators said they never found one.

Taylor pleaded guilty this year to the charge of felony neglect. As part of that plea deal, local prosecutors agreed to drop a misdemeanor count of recklessly storing a firearm.

Taylor also pleaded guilty to the federal marijuana-weapons charge. Investigators found nearly an ounce of marijuana in Taylor’s bedroom following the shooting.

James Ellenson, one of Taylor’s attorneys, this year said his client had “mitigating circumstances,” including miscarriages and postpartum depression. She also has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a condition that shares symptoms with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to court documents.

Taylor in May told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she feels responsible and apologized to Zwerner.

“That is my son, so I am, as a parent, obviously willing to take responsibility for him, because he can’t take responsibility for himself,” Taylor said.

During her sentencing last month in federal court, one of her attorneys read aloud a brief statement in which Taylor said she would feel remorse “for the rest of my life.”

The bullet fired from Taylor’s gun struck Zwerner in the left hand and upper left chest, breaking bones and puncturing a lung. The teacher rushed her other students into the hallway before collapsing in the school’s office.

The 6-year-old who shot Zwerner told a reading specialist who restrained him, “I shot that [expletive] dead,” and “I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to search warrants.

Zwerner told the judge during Taylor’s federal sentencing that she remembers losing consciousness while medics worked on her.

“I was not sure whether it would be my final moment on Earth,” Zwerner said.

Zwerner spent nearly two weeks in the hospital and has endured five surgeries to restore motion to her left hand. She struggles to put on clothes or tie shoes.

She is suing Newport News Public Schools for $40 million, claiming administrators ignored warnings that the boy had a gun. She told the federal judge she has lost a sense of herself and suffered “massive financial loss.”

Zwerner no longer works for the school system and is no longer teaching. She said she loves children but is scared to work with them.

She attends therapy and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, while also suffering from depression and anxiety.

“I contend daily with deep emotional scars,” Zwerner said.