Florida Teen Sentenced for School Threat

A Florida teenager was sentenced to four months in prison Friday for sending an Internet threat to a Columbine High School student, saying he would finish what two student gunmen started last spring.

U.S. Atty. Tom Strickland said the sentencing of Michael Ian Campbell, 18, delivered a message that Internet threats will not be tolerated.

“When we first charged this case, we made it clear that this kind of conduct was serious conduct that had serious consequences, that these types of threats would not be tolerated,” Strickland said.

Campbell, of Cape Coral, Fla., collapsed when the sentence was read but recovered a short time later.

On Dec. 15, Campbell sent an online message telling Columbine sophomore Erin Walton he would finish what gunmen Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold started when they killed 13 people at Columbine High School, then shot themselves in April 1999.

Campbell’s message, sent under the screen name “Soup81,” prompted school officials to close Columbine for winter break two days early.

Walton, who cried during her statement before sentencing, left the courtroom in fresh tears when Campbell’s mother jumped up to help her fainting son and wagged a finger in Walton’s direction.

U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham also ordered Campbell to serve three years’ probation, stop using the Internet and receive mental health treatment.

The judge said he believed Campbell had accepted responsibility, but evidence showed he had deliberately sought out a Columbine victim.

“It may have been a stupid prank, but that prank stole away the innocence of my daughter,” Jackie Walton told the judge. Her daughter has since left Columbine.

Campbell apologized to Erin Walton and the community during the hearing. Columbine parent Steve Schweitzberger said he believed Campbell was remorseful.

“He’s a kid who made a stupid mistake,” said Schweitzberger.

Campbell’s lawyer, Ellis Rubin, told the judge that Campbell had tried to commit suicide a few weeks earlier and spent time in a mental hospital. Rubin has said Campbell has a history of depression and was suffering because his father died in November.

Rubin wanted to claim that Campbell was innocent in an “Internet intoxication defense” that said victims cannot distinguish between reality and cyber-reality after spending excessive time on the Internet.

Campbell later changed his plea to guilty on one count of communicating a threat across state lines.