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19-year-old sentenced to 22 years for school shooting plot

Joshua O'Connor will spend about 22 years in prison for plotting a massacre at an alternative high school in Mukilteo.

The above video shows students from ACES High School holding a rally on National Walkout Day.

An Everett man has been sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for plotting a massacre at his high school.

The Daily Herald reports that Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Bruce Weiss had been weighing the sentence for 19-year-old Joshua O'Connor for two weeks before issuing it Thursday.

VIDEO: O'Connor robbed a gas station day before arrest

O'Connor had planned to attack ACES, an alternative high school in Mukilteo last April. His grandmother foiled the plan when she found a journal full of his plans in his bedroom, along with a rifle hidden in his guitar case and evidence he had stuck up a minimart.

The grandmother, Catherine Katsel O'Connor, asked the judge to show mercy to her grandson. The judge called her a hero, but he declined defense requests for a sentence below the standard sentencing range, saying the plans were methodically thought out rather than just youthful or impulsive.

In a written statement to the court, O'Connor apologized, saying he'd been suicidal and abusing drugs and alcohol.

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