11-year-old boy sentenced to about 4 years for plot to kill classmate

A Colville judge sentenced an 11-year-old boy to three to four years in juvenile detention today for his role in plotting to kill a girl in his class. After a lengthy hearing, Stevens County Superior Court Judge Allen Nielson called the boy’s actions “a brazen crime,” and said he found cause for an extended sentence. The boy was convicted last month of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Nielson said the boy’s actions following discovery of the plot amounted to a “shrewd effort” to pin evidence on his co-defendant, a 10-year-old classmate who earlier this year pleaded guilty. The defense had asked for the boy to be released for treatment in the care of his grandparents. Staff at Fort Colville Elementary School seized a handgun, an ammunition clip and a knife from the 10-year-old’s backpack on Feb. 7. A fourth-grader saw one of the boys playing with the knife on a school bus and told a school worker.