Article Author:
Associated Press
Sharpe, who was 15 years old at the time of the 2017 shooting, pleaded guilty in Spokane County Superior Court earlier this year. Sharp, 20, showed no emotion when Superior Court Judge Michael Price handed down a longer sentence than prosecutors had requested.
"I'm sorry to this whole community," Sharp said Friday. "Sorry for those who can't sleep at night."
Sharp also apologized directly to the three injured victims and to Ami Strahan, the mother of 15-year-old Sam Strahan, who died in the attack.
"Above all, I'm sorry to Ami and Emily for taking Sam away," Sharp said.
"Evil has no place in my heart," said Sharpe. "I cannot do enough penance to give back what I have taken. Rest in peace."
On Thursday, Ami Strahan and the three injured girls issued a statement, All said they wanted Sharpe to serve up to 45 years in prison.
, after firing in a hallway and hitting four students, he surrendered in the face of his parents.
After years of trial delays, Sharp pleaded guilty in January to one count of first-degree murder and his three counts of attempted murder.
On Thursday, victims Emma Nice and Gracie Jensen described what happened the day they were shot by Sharpe in his upstairs hallway at the school.
"While I was lying there I saw you pass by me, dressed in all black with the most emotionless face I have ever seen. , lockdown alarms go off," Jensen told Sharp. "I'll shoot my classmates who run into the classroom for their lives.
"I started running and was very scared because I felt like I was running in slow motion," Emma Nice said in her testimony. ``My mission was to get to the nearest classroom as soon as possible. Came to her desk and said she was at work when I told her to hang up. They said there was a shooting at Freeman High School.
When she arrived at school, she found that she had been taken to a different location than the other parents. She was taken by the sheriff.
When she told Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Nezovic who she was, he shook her head.
"Loudly he cried twice," said Strahan. "And I fell."
"You took my son in the worst possible way, and you have absolutely no remorse," Strahan told Sharp. You've ruined my life."
She called Sharp a "sick, evil coward."
Brooke Foley, Sharpe's public defender, had a judge sentence him to 20 years, citing Sharpe's age and lack of maturity at the time of the shooting.
Deputy Prosecutor Sharon Hedlund agreed that Sharpe's sentence should fall short of the norm, but asked Price to give him a 35-year sentence.
On the day of the shooting, Sharp brought his AR-15 rifle and handgun, his duffel bag containing numerous boxes of .223 ammunition to the school bus.
"I always knew you were going to shoot the school," Strahan told Sharp, according to court documents. "You know it's going to get you into trouble."
Sharpe pulled a pistol from under his coat and fired a shot, hitting Strahan in the stomach. Strahan fell forward, at which point Sharp shot him again, this time in the face.
Sharp continued down the corridor, shooting and wounding three girls.
After firing into the crowd, Sharp threw down his handgun, at which point he faced custodian Joe Bowen. As Bowen approached, Sharp raised his hands above his head and surrendered.
