ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – Jesse Osborne, the shooter in the 2016 Townville Elementary School shooting, has pleaded guilty to all five of his charges during a hearing in Anderson County on Wednesday, including pleading guilty to the murders of 6-year-old Jacob Hall and his father, Jeffrey Osborne.
In court Wednesday, Osborne, now 16, pleaded guilty to two murder charges and three attempted murder charges following the September 2016 shooting at Townville Elementary School.
Osborne was 14 years old at the time of the shooting and has spent the last two years behind bars in Greenville County.
In front of a courtroom full of victims and community members, Osborne said he was guilty of murdering his father and Jacob Hall, as well as guilty of the attempted murders of teacher Megan Hollingsworth and two other students at the school.
Osborne told the judge on Wednesday that he knew his plea would give up his right to a jury trial.
As for what’s next, Osborne will be sentenced at a later hearing and could be facing up to two life sentences without parole, plus 90 years.
10th Judicial Circuit Solicitor David Wagner expects the sentencing to be late spring or early summer 2019.
The law firm representing the estate of Jacob Hall and the other Townville survivors issued the following statement on Wednesday:
The Dunaway Law Firm, LLC represents the Estate of Jacob Hall along with other Townville survivors and families. The tragic events of September 28, 2016 not only resulted in the loss of someone very special, loving, and adored but devasted and inflicted irreparable harm on the Hall family as well as the entire Townville community. Jesse Osborne’s guilty plea today confirms our belief in the justice system.
His admission in open court will hopefully bring some closure to the family as they try to move forward without little Jacob. The emotional and physical injuries inflicted by Jesse upon his fellow students that day will never go away even by his admission here today. However, we can rest assured that he will spend the rest of his days in a cold metal jail cell.
The Hall family and this law firm still believe and are inflexibly committed to the fact that had the proper school safety procedures and first-aid medical equipment been available on September 28, 2016, this tragedy could have been avoided.
It is our hope and pledge for every school in South Carolina to have a proper emergency plan in place and to be outfitted with adequate first-aid supplies at the conclusion of our lawsuit.
Townville Elementary simply did not have these items available on the day of the shooting and it is our mission to make certain that a tragedy like this never happens again here at home.
We believe that at the completion of this case, our goals will have been accomplished.
