TEENAGER INDICTED FOR CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER AT HILLIARD DAVIDSON HIGH SCHOOL

Posted on 9/28/2017

Defendant: John Leonard Staley, III

Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said, “This teenager was plotting a mass shooting at Hilliard Davidson High School, and will be prosecuted as an adult for that crime.”  Prosecutor Ron O’Brien announced that the Franklin County Grand Jury has returned an indictment on John Leonard Staley, III, age 17, for one count of Conspiracy to Commit Murder (F-1), in connection with the September 1^st to October 7^th, 2016 detailed planning by Staley to carry out  his school shooting plan.  “Staley was suspended from school and arrested in October of 2016 after a fellow student contacted a school resource officer to say they heard Staley discussing his plot on a school bus,” O’Brien stated.  “Staley had created diagrams of different locations in the school, had attempted to recruit other students to assist in his plan, had written down what weapon types and how much ammunition would be needed, and had used his school issued iPad, and his personal cell phone and computer to research school shootings, how to obtain weapons, and other disturbing information,” O’Brien further stated.  Arraignment for Staley is set for  Monday, October 2^nd, at 1:30 pm in courtroom 2B at 345 S. High Street in downtown Columbus.