The mother of a six-year-old boy who shot his first-grade teacher in January was sentenced to prison for felony child negligence.
Deja Nicole Taylor will serve two years of a five-year sentence, with three years suspended, then two years of probation, according to a news release from the Newport News Commonwealth Attorney.
Substance addiction treatment, parenting education, and mental health care will be part of her probation.
According to CBS News, Circuit Court Judge Christopher Papile went above and beyond the Virginia state sentencing standards and the proposal of six months in jail that Taylor’s lawyers agreed to in a plea deal with prosecutors.
Taylor has also pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from lying on the application to obtain the gun used by her son to shoot Abby Zwerner in front of her first-grade class. Taylor received a 21-month prison sentence for these offenses.
The Commonwealth Attorney’s Office said the sentences will run consecutively.
Deja Taylor, mother of 6-year-old who shot teacher, sentenced to 2 years in prison https://t.co/53shtjlShv pic.twitter.com/xqkazWranW
— FOX26Houston (@FOX26Houston) December 16, 2023
Zwerner was shot in the left hand and upper left chest on January 6, resulting in shattered bones and a punctured lung.
Afterward, the boy told a school official, “I shot that b**** dead.”
Zwerner has said she wondered after being shot “whether it would be my final moment on earth.” She has undergone five surgeries and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Taylor’s son informed officers that he climbed onto a dresser to steal his mother’s 9mm handgun from her purse. Taylor claimed she had used a trigger lock to secure the gun, but one was never located.
Her attorneys claimed “mitigating circumstances,” including postpartum depression and a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, were in play. During her federal sentencing in November, Taylor said she would feel remorse “for the rest of my life.”
Zwerner, who is no longer a teacher, is suing Newport News Public Schools for $40 million, alleging that school officials ignored warnings that the boy had a pistol.
According to her lawsuit, by the time school officials searched his backpack for a gun, he had placed it into his hoodie pocket. According to the lawsuit, a school official also barred teachers from searching the boy’s name.
The boy had “a history of random violence,” according to the suit, which identifies him as John Doe.
“John Doe had been removed from school during the 2021-2022 school year when he was in kindergarten after he strangled and choked a teacher,” the lawsuit notes, according to the Daily Mail.
“All Defendants knew that John Doe attacked students and teachers alike, and his motivation to injure was directed toward anyone in his path, both in and out of school.”