Jul 17, 2008 10:29 pm US/Eastern
Jury Convicts Gunman In 2006 Vt. School Shootings
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) ―
A man was convicted of murder Thursday for a shooting rampage that killed a teacher in an elementary school and his ex-girlfriend's mother.
After 4 1/2 hours of deliberations, jurors rejected the insanity defense for Christopher Williams, 29. Prosecutors said Williams set out to kill his ex-girlfriend and her mother after being turned away from their home when he came to collect his belongings after a breakup.
Williams was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of attempted second-degree murder. Another teacher at the school and a friend who had loaned him the gun were shot but survived.
The Aug. 24, 2006, shootings began at the home of Andrea Lambesis and her mother, Linda. They continued at Essex Elementary School — school wasn't in session yet, but teachers were there — and ended outside the condominium of Chad Johansen, Williams' friend.
Linda Lambesis, 57, was shot after Williams chased her through her home, shooting.
Mary Alicia Shanks, 56, a schoolteacher at Essex Elementary and close friend of Andrea Lambesis, was shot to death in her classroom.
Williams shot and wounded another teacher, Mary Snedeker, 54. He had gone outside after killing Shanks and fired through a window at Snedeker, apparently thinking she was Lambesis, prosecutor Mary Morrissey said.
Prosecutors said Williams shot Johansen, 28, in the head outside his condominium after returning there to get more ammunition. Johansen was shot when he answered a ringing cell phone because Williams thought it was the police calling and that Johansen was going to turn him in, Morrissey said.
Williams' lawyers said he was in a dissociative state and had a mental defect that made him incapable of forming the intent to kill.
But Morrissey said that Williams knew exactly what he was doing when he borrowed a .45 caliber pistol and went gunning for Lambesis.
"He had a mission in mind, he had a plan, he followed it through," Morrissey said.
When the verdicts were announced after 8 p.m. in the packed courtroom, Lambesis cried and hugged her sister before hugging Morrissey. She declined comment.
"Ever since I started, it's been like riding a wave and you don't get off the surfboard until it hits the shore," Snedeker said. "I stayed focused and believed this jury would do the right thing, based on the evidence."
Snedeker was shot in the hip and took a year off from teaching before returning to Essex Elementary.
Shanks' husband, Steve Shanks, declined to comment, as did defense attorney Margaret Jansch.
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