Lawyer Wants Green-Haired Teen Accused In School Shooting Plot Released

JOLIET, IL — With his sharply dressed father and mother standing just a few feet behind him, the green-haired Plainfield 15-year-old accused of trying to commit a mass murder on the final day of the school year at Grand Prairie Elementary School made his first appearance in his juvenile courtroom at the River Valley Juvenile Justice Center.

There are strict rules in place for press coverage of juvenile proceedings. Will County Judge Carmen Goodman reminded reporters that they cannot publish the juvenile's name for their news stories.

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At Friday's detention hearing, the 15-year-old boy, a Plainfield Central High School student, is being represented by prominent downtown Joliet criminal defense attorney Jeff Tomczak of the Tomczak Law Group. Debra Rippy served as the prosecutor for the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

Tomczak asked Judge Goodman to release his 15-year-old client from custody at River Valley, where the boy was moved on Thursday following 13 days of intensive psychiatric inpatient treatment at a medical facility. Tomczak explained the teenager's parents have no weapons inside their home that the boy could obtain. Tomczak urged the judge to put his client under GPS monitoring to monitor his movements, ensuring that the boy remains home 24 hours a day as he continues to take his medications.

Tomczak said the 15-year-old green-haired boy has no recollection at all of dyeing his hair bright green. That was one of the questions raised by Judge Goodman.

Tomczak told Judge Goodman that the teen was clearly in a psychotic state of mind when he did that.

"Judge, he is stable and on his medications. I don't want this young man to take a downturn," Tomczak argued, trying to persuade Judge Goodman to let his client return to his family's home in Plainfield. "Mom and Dad are available 24 hours a day. He will never be left alone."

Tomczak informed Judge Goodman that he was not disputing the key allegations raised by the Will County Sheriff's Office. The prosecutor said the boy had a backpack with a loaded gun and several magazines of ammunition as well as multiple knives, brass knuckles, a torch-type device and even a water bottle apparently filled with gasoline.

As it turned out, Friday's courtroom testimony revealed, the Plainfield 15-year-old obtained these items from his cousin's house, where the boy was on Friday, May 22. The boy was in the process of riding his bicycle over to Grand Prairie Elementary School when he was tackled by relatives who became aware of the mass-murder plot. The boy was held down until Will County Sheriff's deputies and ambulance paramedics arrived and took him away for a psychiatric evaluation.

"Judge, the weapons were not accessed in their home," Tomczak emphasized, referring to his boy's parents.

Tomczak said his client was an honor roll student and a soccer player just three years ago. He said the boy's mental state of mind rapidly deteriorated as a result of a freak incident: a car drove through a school building, and the boy was hit in the head with a brick.

The incident happened in 2021 at the St. Paul Grade School in Joliet on Woodlawn Avenue. Joliet Patch covered that incident at the time, which sent two students to the hospital.

"The change in medication caused him to go psychotic," Tomczak argued. "He had been locking himself in his room. The parents are good people, and he could not get any weapons in that house.

"He was tackled off a bike, he's never dyed his hair like this before," Tomczak told Judge Goodman.

Meanwhile, Rippy, the prosecutor, rejected the argument that the change in the boy's medications two weeks earlier was responsible for his school shooting scheme. She argued the boy had been planning to commit a mass murder targeting school students many months in advance. She also said that the boy's intention was to take his own life that same day.

Judge Goodman asked the lawyers from both sides a lot of questions before rendering her decision.

In the end, she sided with the prosecution, agreeing to order the Plainfield youth be kept next door to her courthouse at the River Valley Juvenile Justice Center.

"I do understand there may be a clear mental issue here," Judge Goodman explained at one point. "He will be detained at this time. If not this, what will be an immediate and urgent necessity?"

Judge Goodman set the next pretrial hearing for June 25. The hearing will consist of another custody review for the boy, and the judge will take up Tomczak's motion asking that prosecutors dismiss some of their key charges.