MLM Counties News. Notices. Need-to-know Information.
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of a southwest Missouri man who told police he had considered committing a mass shooting at a Wal-Mart or a movie theater but changed his mind.
Blaec Lammers of Bolivar had appealed his convictions of attempted first-degree assault and armed criminal action, for which he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In a 6-1 decision, the court held that his gun purchases, target practice and statements to police were sufficient to determine he committed a crime.
A conviction of attempted first-degree assault requires proof of intent as well as evidence of “a substantial step” toward committing the crime, according to the decision.
Lammers’ statements were evidence of his intent, Judge Mary Russell wrote in the majority opinion. Because there was already evidence of his intent, buying weapons and “extensive target practice” could be reasonably deemed a substantial step toward accomplishing that intent, she wrote.
Judge Richard Teitelman wrote in a dissenting opinion that despite Lammers’ homicidal thoughts, he never behaved in a way that corroborated a firm plan to act on those thoughts.
Legally buying weapons and spending an afternoon shooting soda cans does not prove Lammers crossed the line between thought and criminal action, he wrote. “Mr. Lammers should be receiving treatment for his mental illness rather than serving time in prison for a crime he did not commit.”
A detective interviewed Lammers in 2012 after his mother warned police he had secretly bought two assault rifles and she was worried that he wasn’t taking his depression medicine.
After initially saying the rifles were for hunting and to impress people, he told the detective that he bought the weapons after watching a movie about the Columbine High School shootings, according to court documents.
“These thoughts were going through my head, like, what would happen if I ever did that. So I went out and bought them,” Lammers, then 20 years old, told the officer, according to court documents. “Then I realized I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in prison.”
Lammars told the officer he had considered shooting up a movie theater but decided Wal-Mart would be a better target because there would be more people and more ammunition would be at hand, according to the court documents.
Lammers’ attorney had filed a motion in trial court to suppress that interview as evidence, arguing it violated Lammers’ Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.
But Lammers was neither arrested nor subjected to arrest-like restraints during the interview, Russell wrote. Since he wasn’t detained, his rights were not violated, she wrote.
Donald Cooley, a Springfield attorney who represented Lammers, said he was flabbergasted by the decision. He said an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court would be highly unlikely.
The case is State v. Lammers, SC94977.
