Fri, Jul 18 2008
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Published November 26, 2006 12:00 am - Trial could reveal evidence in alleged Riverton-school plot The Joplin Globe By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com COLUMBUS, Kan. - The public may finally learn what happened on April 20 that prompted the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department to arrest five Riverton High School students and accuse them of compiling a hit list of students and school employees. Coy New's trial this week should reveal evidence that so far has not been released to the public. The trial is scheduled to begin Monday in Cherokee County District Court. A jury won't hear the evidence. Judge Robert Fleming on Wednesday denied a jury trial for New on what is now a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to riot. Fleming will hear the evidence in a bench trial. New's attorney, Robert Myers, appeared agitated as he left the courthouse Wednesday following Fleming's ruling. Last week, 16-year-old Riverton High School student Caleb Byrd pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Fleming found him guilty and sentenced him to probation for the rest of the school year and 100 hours of community service. Another co-defendant, Andrew Jaeger, 15, the previous week pleaded no contest to the same reduced charge and was sentenced to probation for the rest of the school year, but did not receive any community service. In August, co-defendants James Tillman, 16, and Robby Hunt, 17, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor conspiracy to riot. They were sentenced to probation until the end of the school year and 100 hours of community service. "I think we can take some comfort that this wasn't as serious as it was presented months ago," Fleming said at the August hearing, adding that he had not read or heard any of the evidence. On April 20, the day the five were arrested, Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Norman said the students had been making detailed plans since the beginning of the school year and were serious about carrying them out on that day. He said the students had compiled a "hit" list of students and school employees they planned to shoot. "This could have been a very tragic day," Norman said on April 20, which was the seventh anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Presumably, such a hit list would be presented as evidence at the trial, if it exists. The students' defense attorneys have said they have seen nothing in the evidence that resembles a hit list. Norman on April 20 said evidence investigators collected included information about a fascination with Hitler and Nazi Germany and the shooters in the Columbine tragedy. Norman called the literature found in searches of the students' lockers "very concerning and very dark." Two days before the arrests, school officials became aware of a message on New's site on MySpace.com. A calendar item for April 20 between noon and 1 p.m. noted Hitler's birthday and encouraged readers to wear a bullet-proof vest and to share the message with everyone. At a June 6 hearing in Parsons for James Tillman, Riverton High School Principal Todd Berry and assistant Principal Cory White testified their investigation of the message gave no indication of an underlying plot. 
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