William 'Lily' Whitworth sentenced to 6 years in prison after guilty plea in plan to carry out mass shootings in Colorado

One day short of William "Lily" Whitworth's 20th birthday, a judge handed down a six-year prison sentence for the Elbert County resident. Whitworth pleaded guilty in November of last year to charges related to plans to carry out attacks against three schools and at least one church.

That prison sentence will be followed by three years of mandatory parole.    

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Whitworth, born William in 2004 but identifying now as Lily, was jailed after a family member called police to their home on March 31, 2023. The relative told investigators that Whitworth had punched holes in the walls of the home and made references to conducting a deadly mass shooting at three schools - an elementary, middle school and high school in the District 20 school district - for two consecutive days. 

Whitworth, according to the arrest affidavit in the case, acknowledged the plans to investigators. Whitworth also directed investigators to some items in the home about those plans. After obtaining a search warrant, investigators found two notebooks containing drawings of the schools' floor plans, a detonation device, the names of previous mass shooters, a list of firearms and instructions for 3D printing them, and lists of people to be killed. They also found a dry-erase board in the home which displayed school floor plans.