Addison Watson
Staff Writer
The families affected by the 2018 Marshall County High School shooting received some closure today as Gabriel Parker entered into a plea agreement.
Parker pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and eight counts of first-degree assault. Six of the assault charges were amended to second-degree assault. Originally, all the assault charges were first-degree.
The other eight assault charges were not amended and stand as charged.
Parker’s guilty plea for the assault charges is expected to come with up to 70 years of prison time, not including his plea for the two murder charges. Each murder charge is expected to grant him life in prison.
Parker’s defense attorney Tom Griffiths said the sentences run together into a life in prison plea deal because Kentucky doesn’t do life plus a number of years.
The News spoke to Dennis Foust, commonwealth attorney, who confirmed the details regarding Parker’s guilty plea.
Griffiths said Parker agreed to the plea deal because he felt it was the appropriate thing to do.
“Gabe entered a plea today not because it was easy for him but because it was the right thing to do,” Griffiths said. “It was the right thing for him, for the victims’ family.”
Griffiths said Parker never entered a plea of not guilty in previous proceedings.
“He was always accepting responsibility for what he has done,” Griffiths said.
Today’s hearing was originally scheduled to discuss whether the trial should be delayed further because of complications involving COVID-19, but Parker instead wanted to accept the commonwealth’s plea agreement.
On Jan. 23, 2018, 15-year-old Gabriel Parker entered Marshall County High School where he opened fire, killing two of his classmates, Preston Cope and Bailey Holt, and injuring 14 other students. Four of the students were critically injured.
In a video posted on the Louisville Courier-Journal’s website in 2018, Marshall County Sheriff’s Department Captain Matt Hillbrecht gave a possible motive for the shooting.
Hillbrecht said Parker told him he was an atheist and his life had no purpose or meaning, and other people’s lives also had no purpose. He also said he wondered what prison life was like. To read more about what was disclosed during this video interview click here.
Parker has been held in the Christian County, Kentucky, jail since the shooting, where the trial was supposed to take place.
Judge Jamie Jameson said sentencing for Parker will be held June 12 at 1 p.m. Griffiths said Parker will be eligible for the possibility of parole in 20 years.
To view the original story after the shooting, click here.
