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FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky man who killed three fellow students and wounded five others when he was 14 years old will have to spend the rest of his life in prison without another opportunity to seek parole, the Kentucky Parole Board voted Monday.

Michael Carneal, now 39, told parole board members last week that he would live with his parents and continue his mental health treatment if they agreed to release him. He admitted that he still hears voices like the ones that told him to steal a neighbor’s pistol and fire it into the crowded lobby of Heath High School in 1997. However, Carneal said that with therapy and medication, he has learned to control his behavior.

Parole Board Chair Ladeidra Jones earlier told Carneal their “number one charge is to maintain public safety.” She informed him that his inmate file listed his mental health prognosis as “poor” and says he experiences “paranoid thoughts with violent visual imagery.” 

For survivor Missy Jenkins Smith, who was paralyzed in the shooting, this decision brings a sense of closure for her and her family. 

Missy Jenkins Smith was shot and paralyzed by Michael Carneal during the Heath High School shooting in 1997. (Spectrum News 1/Mason Brighton)

“I was glad that the result was what it was,” Jenkins Smith said. 

Last week, Jenkins Smith was one of the victims of the shooting who spoke publicly to the parole board ahead of Carneal’s hearing. She expressed her concerns about what could happen if he was released. 

“The stress of that, I would hate for there to be more victims because he couldn’t handle the situation and because he couldn’t take care of himself and so since it didn’t go that way I think it is positive for everybody all around, even him,” Jenkins Smith said. 

With the worries of what could happen if Carneal was released now gone, Jenkins Smith says she will focus again on telling her story in hopes of preventing another Heath High School Shooting. 

“I am just going to focus on using this wheelchair, continue using it as a purpose for my life, making it a visual for others so they can know what happens if someone decides to bring a gun to school or any kind of gun violence, that it can cause physical injury for the rest of their life,” Jenkins Smith said. 

Missy also wants to thank all of the people who send her encouraging messages online which she says helped her through the parole hearings. 

“When I was a 15-year-old girl, having to learn how to do everything all over again, there were so many people from all over the world that didn’t know me who were encouraging me and helping me not feel alone and that’s exactly what I was feeling again.” Jenkins Smith said. “There were tons of people from Kentucky that were telling me that they were behind me, they were praying for me, and then I didn’t feel alone again and I felt like I could get through this”

The Kentucky Parole Board rules Michael Carneal will remain in prison. Carneal was convicted of the murders at Heath High School (Spectrum News 1/Mason Brighton)

Speaking by videoconference from the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, he also apologized to his victims, including the entire tightknit community of Heath, just outside of Paducah. The students who were killed in the Dec. 1, 1997, shooting were 17-year-old Jessica James, 15-year-old Kayce Steger, and 14-year-old Nicole Hadley, who Carneal said was a “very good friend” to him.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” he said. “I know it’s not going to change things or make anything better, but I am sorry for what I did.”

Several of those wounded in the shooting and relatives of those who were killed also spoke to the parole board panel last week. Most expressed a wish for Carneal to remain in prison for life. Andrew Hadley, younger brother to Nicole, told the panel he does not understand why Carneal even has a chance at parole when his victims were “sentenced to a life of pain and suffering.”

He told the board how his sister used to drive him to excel both academically and athletically.

“She always wanted to strive to push us to be our best. And we’ve been missing that every day since she was taken from us,” he said. “I’ll never be able to touch her again, or hear her talk me through things.”

Heath High School shooting suspect Michael Carneal is escorted out of the McCracken County Courthouse after his arraignment in Paducah, Ky., Jan. 15, 1998. (Courier Journal via AP/Sam Upshaw Jr.)

Carneal was a 14-year-old freshman when he opened fire on a before-school prayer circle that met in the lobby each morning. He was given the maximum sentence for someone his age at the time, a life sentence with a possibility of parole after 25 years. When the parole board meets on Monday morning, it could vote to release him, defer his next parole decision for up to 10 years, or order Carneal to serve out his full sentence.

Asked about the shooting by the parole board, Carneal attributed it to a combination of factors that included his mental health and immaturity, but added that it was “not justified at all. There’s no excuse for it at all.” He said there are days that he believes he deserves to die for what he did, but other days he thinks he could still do some good in the world if he were released.