U.S.

Teen Killer Gets 28 Years

July 26, 2001 / 8:42 AM EDT / CBS

A judge sentenced a 14-year-old boy to 28 years in prison on Friday for fatally shooting his favorite teacher between the eyes on the last day of school.

Nathaniel Brazill, who was tried as an adult, had faced a 25-year minimum sentence and up to life in prison for killing Barry Grunow at Lake Worth Middle School on May 26, 2000.

The sentence, just three years more than the legal minimum, shocked some relatives of the victim.

Brazill, wearing a bright red jumpsuit and shackles, showed little emotion as the judge announced his decision.

Defense lawyer Robert Udell said the family will appeal and will not seek clemency until the appeals process was completed.

"I can tell you he's pleased. Nathaniel just wanted to know if there is a light at the end of the tunnel," Udell said. The defense had sought the minimum 25-year term. Brazill's family rejected a plea deal of 25 years offered by prosecutors before the trial.

Kay Grunow, the victim's sister, said she was "extremely disappointed" with the sentence, calling it "an insult to Barry's memory."

In issuing the sentence, Circuit Judge Richard Wennet faced the decision of whether the teen would be a danger to society or could be rehabilitated.

Brazill was sentenced to 28 years for the murder and five years for an assault on another teacher, with the sentences to run concurrently.

The judge gave Brazill 428 days credit for time served and ordered the teen to spend two years in a community controlled facility after the completion of his sentence. After that, Brazill must serve five years probation.

Legal analysts said Brazill fared about as well as he could have hoped.

"In this case, the judge was required to give Nathaniel Brazill an adult sentence, and he did, but both sentences were near the bottom of the ladder," said CBS News legal consultant Andrew Cohen. "The young man certainly got a break today."

Hours before the sentencing, Brazill's mother, Polly Powell, said she hoped the judge would give a sentence that would let her son help other teens learn how to handle the kind of anger that caused her son to go to school with a gun.

"I'm quite sure that he can help the next child not go through something like this, help children realize that if something is bothering you, you know, talk with an adult, talk with somebody," Powell told CBS News' The Early Show.

At a sentencing hearing Thursday, Brazill told the judge, "Words cannot really express how sorry I am, but they're all I have."

Brazill called Barry Grunow a "great man and a great teacher. … I've been thinking about Mrs. Grunow and how lonely she is."

Brazill had returned to school after being suspended by a counselor earlier that day for throwing a water balloon. He shot Grunow after the teacher refused to let the then seventh-grader talk to two girls in his class.

At his May trial, Brazill had insisted he only meant to scare the teacher and that the gun went off acidentally.

Grunow's mother and brother testified at the hearing that the teen should be punished for the murder and would be a danger to society if he's ever released from prison and should spend the rest of his life in prison.

"This was not an accident. I think Nathaniel should be punished to the fullest extent of the law," said Phyllis Grunow, the victim's mother. "I don't think any family should have to go through this."

Grunow's widow, Pam, told the judge that she didn't have a recommendation to the court.

"I do not know what price Nathaniel should pay for taking Barry's life," she said, reading from a brief written statement. "I cannot make a recommendation because that is not my job. I do not have the wisdom."

She described her husband as loving and a wonderful father with many friends and students who cared greatly for him.

"At home he enjoyed working in his garden and being Daddy," she said. "He was devoted to us. We were his priority."