Teen who threatened U-High classmate receives suspended sentence

A student who made death threats against a classmate at University High School last year received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty earlier this month.

Adam McCarty, 18, pleaded guilty Jan. 6 to harassment .

McCarty had an altercation with a student and then threatened on social media to kill that person, according to court documents. The threat of violence forced University to cancel school on Nov. 5.

“These threats were then forwarded and passed around, along with other individual interpretations, that McCarty would shoot the school up while others warned classmates not to go to school today because the school would be shot up,” the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement at the time.

Investigators did not locate a specific threat from McCarty indicating he intended to “shoot up the school” but found specific threats against a 16-year-old classmate.

McCarty pleaded guilty to misdemeanor harassment and was sentenced to spend 364 days in jail, the maximum sentence for the crime. However, 303 days were suspended and McCarty had already served the remaining 61 days, according to court records.

McCarty will remain on probation for 12 months and be unable to possess firearms or ammunition during that time.