The full parole board will consider his case on Sept. 26 and then make a decision, said parole board chairwoman Ladeidra Jones. Carneal, now 39, pleaded his case Tuesday during a parole hearing via video conference. “I’ve had 25 years to prepare for today, and it still doesn’t seem to be happening,” Carneal told Jones during his parole hearing via video conference. Carneal was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of murder, five counts of attempted murder and one count of first-degree burglary. But Kentucky law requires that juveniles be considered for parole after 25 years. At Tuesday’s hearing, Carneal said he has received multiple mental health diagnoses and has long heard voices in his head — including the day of the mass shooting. “I was hearing things. And I was extremely suspicious. And I felt for years feeling alienated and different,” Carneal said. He said that on December 1, 1997, he heard a voice telling him to “get the gun out of the backpack and hold it in front of me and shoot.” “There is no excuse or justification for what I did,” Carneal said. “I offer an explanation. I realize there is no excuse for what I did.” When asked if he still hears voices in his head, Carneal said yes. “Most of the time, it’s things that might hurt myself or something like that,” he said. For example, just a few days ago, Carneal said a voice told him to jump down the stairs. But now, Carneal said, he knows when to ignore such voices. “I know now that’s not something I should do,” he said. “And I can not do it and rationalize that it’s not something I should do. And what I’m hearing is not true.”
Lawyer: Carneal had paranoid schizophrenia
His public defender asked the parole board to remember that Carneal was only 14 at the time of the mass shooting, suffered from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia and struggled with bullying and the transition from middle school to high school. In the quarter-century since, Carneal “has been committed to mental health treatment, participating in available educational and vocational programs, and being a useful and positive person inside the prison,” attorney Alana Meyer wrote this month. “Despite his surroundings, he has worked hard to better himself and make the best of his situation.”
Victims and families are divided over whether parole should be granted
The victims’ hearing was held Monday, and Carneal faced major pushback for his requested release — from a local district attorney, family members of the victims and survivors of the mass shooting outside Heath High School. Chuck and Gwen Hadley — whose 14-year-old daughter, Nicole Hadley, was one of the youths killed that day — addressed the board Monday, saying they miss her smile, sense of humor and ” great hugs” by Nicole. They want Carneal to spend his life in prison because he has never shown remorse or taken responsibility for those he hurt and killed, the board was told. “We missed Nicole’s high school graduation, her college graduation, her wedding, her children, our grandchildren and many birthdays and holidays together,” Chuck Hadley said on the board. Christina Hadley Ellegood — who often visits the stone memorial to her younger sister Jessica James and Kayce Steger when she’s having a rough day — found Nicole on the ground after she was shot. She also told the board she opposed parole for Carneal, saying Nicole never had the chance to realize her dreams of graduating as a pro, attending the University of North Carolina, working as a WNBA physical therapist or to organize a camp for special needs children. “Nicole got a life sentence. Michael (pleaded) to a life sentence,” he said. “I think he should spend the rest of his life in prison. Nicole doesn’t get a second chance. Why would she?” But one survivor, who Carneal shot in the head, told the board he understood why people want to keep him in prison, but would vote to give the convicted killer another chance. Survivor Hollan Holm opened his statement by recounting the day he was shot: “I was a 14-year-old kid. I was laying on the floor in the lobby of Heath High School, bleeding from the top of my head and I thought I was going to die. I said a prayer and got ready. to die”. It took a dozen staples to repair his head wound, he said, but the mental and emotional scars run deeper. Holm still struggles in crowds and is uneasy sitting in a restaurant with his back to the door, he said. Scans the room for hazards and exit routes. Fireworks and exploding balloons cause panic, and every school shooting makes him relive the day he was shot, he said. But when he thinks of Carneal, he said, he thinks of his oldest daughter, 10, and he can’t imagine holding her to the same standards he would hold an adult. “If the metal health experts think he can be successful on the outside, he should have that opportunity,” Holm said, saying he understands the anger people feel. “I feel that anger, too, but when I feel that anger, I think about the 14-year-old boy who played that day and I think about my own kids, and I think the man that boy became should have a chance to try to do and be better.” Missy Jenkins Smith played in the band with Carneal and remembers him being bullied and bullying others before the day she was shot at age 15. From the wheelchair Carneal left her in, Smith said she could talk for hours about how she struggles without the use of her legs — getting out of bed, bathing, reaching cabinets, entering and getting out of cars and the “shame of special accommodations that happen everywhere I go”. Where she’s supposed to be taking care of her 12- and 15-year-old boys, she said, she’s being taken care of instead. However, she will not be able to dance with them at their weddings.
Lawyer: Carneal has a support system
In her letter to the parole board, Meyer said her client “has shown deep, sincere remorse and has taken responsibility for the shooting.” He also tried to improve himself, maintaining a treatment program for 20 years, completing his GED and anger management program, and taking college classes. Carneal was suffering from the early stages of schizophrenia — which is difficult to diagnose in teenagers — at the time of the shooting, the lawyer wrote. Citing U.S. Supreme Court cases that indicate juvenile offenders have “greater prospects for reform,” Meyer submitted a re-entry plan that shows Carneal would have plenty of support from his family and medical professionals. Now housed at the Kentucky State Penitentiary northeast of Louisville, Carneal will move with his parents to Cold Spring, across the state from Paducah, if he is released, according to the re-entry plan presented to the parole board. His parents will help him with finances, employment, housing and transportation to doctor’s appointments and meetings with his parole officer, the plan says, adding that he will be referred to mental health programs in Cold Spring and nearby Erlanger . “Michael knows that any apology rings hollow, but he is truly sorry for all the physical and emotional pain he has caused his victims and the Heath High School community at large,” the readmission plan states. “While there is nothing he can do now to erase this pain, he plans to make a positive contribution to society in any way he can.” District Attorney Daniel Boaz told the board he was the county attorney at the time of the shooting, which “rocked us to our core, to put it mildly.” The heinous nature of Carneal’s crime allowed authorities to treat him as an adult under Kentucky law, he said, and the state should continue to treat him as an adult who should “pay for the consequences of his action.” CNN’s Nouran Salahieh contributed to this report.
