Maryland youth sentenced for threatening schools in 5 states

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - A juvenile from Maryland who made more than a dozen hoax calls to schools in five states has been sentenced to serve two years in a detention center.

The teen was charged with making the hoax call in April 2017 to Terre Haute North High School in Indiana. He must also pay a $10,000 fine and will be supervised by Maryland authorities until he turns 21, the (Terre Haute) Tribune-Star reported .

"He got a very serious sentence," Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said of the youth. "We insisted on that because we understand the effect this had and the terror this caused to the community."

Modesitt said Monday that the plea agreement also resolves 12 similar hoax calls the youth made to schools in Colorado, Vermont, Missouri and Maryland.

During the Indiana call, the teen claimed he was inside the school with a gun and explosives, and also demanded ransom money. The school's 1,800 students and their teachers were told to shelter in classrooms while about 50 police officers entered the school.

"Other jurisdictions that he had made calls in were satisfied enough with the result we were able to get on this case that they accepted our plea agreement and our resolution of the case as their resolution," Modesitt said.

The teen was assisted in the April hoax by a North Vigo student, who also pleaded guilty and received credit for more than two months served in detention and home detention under a plea agreement. The agreement calls for 12 months supervision by probation, community service, home education and the Restorative Justice program in the Indiana Department of Correction.

Investigators discovered the two met online through gaming programs.

Authorities haven't released the names of the juveniles because of their underage status.

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Information from: Tribune-Star, http://www.tribstar.com