Ex-Ferris student in jail over alleged death threats

Former Ferris High School student Robert S. Weathermon agreed Monday to remain in custody until a decision is made on whether to charge him with alleged death threats in connection with an attempted-murder charge against his friend, Jacob Carr.

Weathermon, 15, who watched his mother die in a traffic accident last summer, was brought to Spokane County Juvenile Court for a hearing that never got started because of his agreement to remain in custody voluntarily.

Assistant Public Defender George Caplan and Deputy Prosecutor Frank Christoff said they anticipated Weathermon would be released on electronic home monitoring.

Starting Monday, Christoff had three days to make a charging decision.

Spokane Police arrested Weathermon on suspicion of felony harassment on Friday, a day after he allegedly made the second of two death threats.

A court document says Weathermon made the threats because he was upset about media reports that his friend, Jacob Carr, could be sentenced to 20 years in prison if convicted in adult court for attempted first-degree murder with a firearm.

Carr, who turns 15 next Tuesday, so far has been charged only in juvenile court. No decision has been made yet on whether to ask a judge to transfer Carr to adult court.

Detective Mark Burbridge said in an affidavit of probable cause that Weathermon was playing a video game with two other boys Thursday when he commented that a long sentence for Carr would be unfair. One of the other boys, who were identified only by initials, responded that Carr deserved a 20-year sentence.

The remark made Weathermon angry, and he threatened to make a hostage of the boy and to go on a “killing rampage at Ferris,” said Burbridge, citing his interview with the alleged victim.

The other boy in the three-way video game and voice conversation over the Internet said he also heard the death threat, according to Burbridge.

The witness said he heard Weathermon threaten to kill just the boy who said Carr deserved a long sentence. But the witness said Weathermon threatened about two days earlier to “go on a rampage and kill people,” Burbridge stated.

The boy Weathermon allegedly threatened during Thursday’s video game told police he believed Weathermon was capable of killing him, and he was “scared for his life,” according to Burbridge.

The alleged victim is a Ferris High School student. Weathermon is a former Ferris student who transferred to another school. Terren Roloff, Spokane Public Schools spokeswoman, said Weathermon was not suspended, and discipline was not involved in his transfer. Citing student privacy law, she declined to say what school he transferred to, or why.

Carr was expelled from Ferris in January for threatening in an e-mail message to kill Ferris English teacher Michelle Klein-Coles because he thought she unfairly told him to be quiet in class. He was allowed to transfer to Shadle Park High School, where he was again expelled when he allegedly went to Ferris on March 24 with the intention of killing Klein-Coles, and then himself.

Just before Carr went to the school, Burbridge told court officials, he called Weathermon and told him about his plan to kill Klein-Coles. Carr invited Weathermon to come along “so they could die together,” Burbridge stated.

He said Weathermon failed to report the murder plan to school officials or police.

Authorities say Carr got within six feet of Klein-Coles, who was working in a staff room, but didn’t kill her because he was afraid other adults in the room would prevent him from killing himself.

He allegedly lurked undetected outside the room for more than an hour, waiting for an opportunity and wrestling with doubts. Then, while he was getting a drink of water, Klein-Coles walked out of the building, according to court documents based on police accounts of Carr’s statements.

Carr faces a sanity hearing on May 3. A court commissioner approved public funding Monday for a psychologist to examine Carr.

The county prosecutor’s office has made no decision on whether to ask a judge to transfer Carr to adult court.

Weathermon wrote a letter in support for Carr, which was included in a packet of materials Carr’s attorney, Ronnie Rae, released to the news media.

In the letter, Weathermon said Carr is his best friend and some of his best times were when he was with Carr.

“One of those times was when we were playing the card game magic,” Weathermon wrote. “It was the first time I had spent the night at Jacobs, (sic) and it was asome (sic) and all we did was joke and talk with his brother.”

Weathermon was stoic in an interview with Spokesman-Review columnist Doug Clark after watching his mother, JoAnne Weathermon, and his great aunt, Janice Templeton, die July 25 when a motorhome struck their car broadside. Weathermon was in another car, two cars back, when his mother turned into the path of the motorhome while attempting to enter the Silverwood theme park near Athol, Idaho.

“You’re very shocked and don’t believe this is happening,” Weathermon said at the time.

Weathermon and his father, Stephen, were campaigning for safety improvements on U.S. Highway 95 when they talked to Clark.