Commonwealth v. Nee

935 N.E.2d 1276 (2010)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D Daniel Farley, and Joseph Sullivan, then all students at Marshfield High, attended a meeting with five police officers at the police station. The meeting had been arranged at D's request by Officer Helen Gray, a police officer assigned to duty as the school's 'resource officer.' D and his companions informed the police officers that since the previous winter another student, Tobin Kerns, had developed an elaborate plot to 'blow up the school.' D described the plot in detail. None of the three friends indicated that they were involved in the plot, or implicated each other in the plot. Kerns was arrested and police obtained a list of supplies and weaponry in a notebook, and evidence of computer searches pertaining to weapons, pipe bombs, and other explosives. Farley and Sullivan testified pursuant to grants of immunity. They testified that during the winter of 2003 and spring of 2004, they would 'hang out' with Kerns and D 'almost every day.' In the winter of 2003, D told Farley of a plan to 'shoot up' the school and asked whether Farley was interested in joining him. On a subsequent occasion when Kerns was also present, D asked Kerns whether Kerns would be interested in joining in 'shooting up the school.' Kerns and D together discussed the plan with Sullivan and asked him whether he would be interested in participating. Kerns and D, along with Farley, Sullivan, and perhaps one other student, were to shoot and kill targeted students, teachers, and other staff at the school using an assortment of automatic and semiautomatic weapons. They would set trip wire explosives, line the hallway with napalm, and place bicycle locks on the main and rear doors to prevent escape. D told Farley that 'he wanted to be exactly like Eric Harris,' one of the perpetrators of the Columbine mass murder. Kerns and D developed a list of ingredients for explosives and other necessary supplies and a list of names of specific students and staff at the school whom they planned to kill. D and Kerns together attempted to make napalm by mixing gasoline and Styrofoam. The defendant acquired copper tubing and other materials necessary to build a pipe bomb; he also tried to build an explosive device using gunpowder, duct tape, a plastic breath mint container, and a candle fuse, which he unsuccessfully attempted to ignite in the woods. Kerns and D brought Timothy Courchene into the planned attack. At the end of the pitch, D displayed a large knife and threatened to cut out the tongue of anyone who spoke to the police about the plot. D was obsessed with Columbine and guns and acquiring them. D then arranged the meeting with the police stating that Kerns was scaring him. During the trial, D asked the judge to apply the renunciation defense. The judge declined. D was convicted and appealed.