Bails Cut, Teens Freed, Questions Raised in Shooting-Rampage Case

After charging six teenage boys with conspiring to plan a recent shooting rampage at the high school in Pearl, Miss., police have quietly released two of them on bail, transferred two to a youth court and sent one home on his own recognizance, raising questions Monday about the future of the case.

“From $2-million bond to free on his own recognizance,” said one of the teens’ lawyers, as he walked into the police station. “Quite a change.”

Initially tight-lipped about the investigation, police were even more silent as they began freeing and transferring the alleged conspirators.

Residents in Pearl, a suburb of the state capital at Jackson, inferred from last week’s dramatic arrests that all six were public menaces who helped 16-year-old Luke Woodham, now charged in an Oct. 1 rampage that claimed the lives of his mother and two fellow students and left seven more injured.

Police have not disclosed what evidence led them to make the arrests, letting the unusually high bonds--$1 million for four of the teens, $2 million for the other two--speak for themselves. Woodham is being held without bond.

“The million-dollar bond is one that I’ve never seen before,” said Wayne Milner, a lawyer for one of the teens. “It was either ridiculously high or just about the same as no bond in the first place.”

But now those bonds have been drastically reduced. Delbert Alan Shaw, 18, was released on $3,000 bond, while Wesley Brownell, 17, was freed on $50,000. Also, Justin Sledge and Lucas Thompson, both 16, were reportedly transferred to youth court, where the charges against them would carry much less severe penalties.

Finally, 16-year-old Donald Brooks II was released on his own recognizance, leading his lawyer to predict that charges against him are about to be dropped. Not so, a prosecutor said Monday.

“It has no bearing on the charges at all,” Assistant Dist. Atty. Jim Kelly said of the bond reductions. “It’s the purpose of the bond to assure that somebody will appear at court, and we’re anticipating [these teens] are not going to be a flight risk.”

Kelly vowed that a hearing scheduled today for 18-year-old Grant Boyette will shed much light on the alleged conspiracy. Boyette is one of two teens charged with a second count of conspiracy to commit murder. The other is Brooks. Both are accused of conspiring to murder not only fellow students, but also Brooks’ father.

A lawyer for Brooks, however, said prosecutors are realizing that they made a terrible mistake.

“We have a perfect defense,” said James D. Bell, who insisted that Brooks had shunned the other suspects in the last few months, and that he is a model child. “This kid is in the school band, he has a part-time job and I’ve accounted for where he goes every day. He’s in church every time it’s open. He doesn’t have time to be a conspirator.”

Bell said Brooks also had a warm reunion Friday night with the father he is accused of plotting to kill. “It was just a terrific embrace,” Bell said.

Researcher Edith Stanley contributed to this story.