Sentencing For Kip Kinkel
The sentencing hearing begins Tuesday for the teen-ager who came to symbolize youth violence after gunning down his parents and classmates in Springfield, Oregon last year, reports CBS News Correspondent Hattie Kauffman.
Six weeks ago, Kip Kinkel pleaded guilty to killing his parents, a day before going to Thurston High School and killing two classmates and injuring 25 others.
In a plea bargain, he has agreed to serve 25 years for the four murder counts. However, the judge can decide how Kinkel must serve the seven-and-a-half-years the prosecution has recommended for each of the attempted murder counts.
This comes two weeks after Kinkel was caught spitting out his nightly medication, and Lane County jail deputies worried that he might be hoarding pills for an attempted suicide, The Register-Guard reported.
Kinkel denied it, saying that the medicine made him sick. He said he had pretended to take his medicine a couple times previously and had flushed it down the toilet. A search of his cell and body revealed no hidden store of medication, according to jail records.
But the Oct. 18 incident resulted in Kinkel being written up in a misconduct report. His dayroom privileges were reduced to 15 minutes per day for three days as a result. Previously, he often was allowed to use the dayroom for up to two hours a day.
The medication episode was one of several occasions last month when Kinkel appeared to be upset or sick, according to jail records. He has been on a suicide watch, checked every 15 minutes, for most of the time he's been at the jail.
Jail commander Capt. Paul Sachet declined to discuss Kinkel's condition in detail. In general, he said, inmates who have been under the care of the jail's mental health staff as Kinkel has are watched a little more closely when they are facing a significant event such as a trial or sentencing.
Kinkel has been a model prisoner through most of the 14 months he has been held at the jail, invariably described in records a polite and cooperative. But jail records indicate he has had some recent problems, too.
On Oct. 17, a deputy noted that Kinkel appeared very pale and said he was ill. That evening, another deputy described Kinkel in his report as "very quiet tonight."
At midnight, a nurse saw Kinkel spit his medication back into a cup. Deputies questioned him about it and Kinkel answered, "I think they've been making me nauseous."
Officers searched him and his cell but didn't find any hoarded medication. Kinkel was warned that he had violated jail rule No. 23: misuse or failure to consume prescribed or issued medication as directed.
"Later I spoke with Kinkel about his mood and if he possessed any suicidal intent," a deputy wrote in a report about the incident. "Kinkel stated, 'No, I've just been feeling sick recently.'"
"I also asked Kinkel if he did feel like committing suicide if he would tell anyone, to which he stated ye," the deputy added. "Kinkel was then advised that he would be receiving a misconduct report for his actions and that it would be served on him later in the day."