16-year-old sentenced in Lima high school plot

4/15/2004

LIMA, Ohio - A 16-year-old Lima boy has been sentenced to at least six months with the Ohio Department of Youth Services after admitting to his role in a plot to blow up Lima Senior High School.

The youth pleaded guilty to a felony charge of inducing panic. Judge David Kinworthy of Allen County Juvenile Court gave the boy the maximum sentence - at least six months in a juvenile prison, but no incarceration beyond age 21.

Jerome Doute, the boy's attorney, said his client was a loner who was seeking companionship when he teamed up with three other boys on the bomb threat. The four were arrested Feb. 27 after police and school officials learned of the plot.