Red Lake Shootings

Minneapolis (AP) ― The son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. admitted to one charge Tuesday related to the shootings that killed 10 people in Red Lake last March. Prosecutors dropped two other charges, including conspiracy to commit murder.

Louis Jourdain, 17, admitted to a charge of "threatening interstate communications," according to the docket released by a federal court in St. Paul. The release of the redacted document, with portions blacked out, marked the first time that the charges were even disclosed, and it contained no details of the allegations.

Jourdain was a friend of 16-year-old Jeff Weise, who shot and killed nine people on the northern Minnesota reservation before taking his own life. The March 21 rampage started when Weise killed his grandfather and the man's girlfriend, then went to the school where he killed seven people, then himself, in the worst U.S. school shooting since Columbine.

Jourdain was arrested a week after the shooting, and had been held since then. He was still jailed on Tuesday, Floyd Jourdain said.

"The ray of light for us is that the conspiracy charges against my son have been dropped, and he accepts responsibility for his actions," Jourdain said of his son. "He admits to his wrongheaded and inappropriate use of the Internet, but he does not accept responsibility for the 10 lives lost at Red Lake on March 21 because he is not responsible."

He said no one has told him what his son's sentence might be. No sentencing date has been set. Juveniles tried in federal court can only be held until age 21 in most cases.

The docket released by the court said both sides agreed that between Jan. 1, 2003 and March 2005 some of Louis Jourdain's electronic communications "could be taken by an objective observer as threatening."

Floyd Jourdain said Tuesday that authorities examined about 400 pages of text messages from his son that covered "everything, from girls to music to video games, to movies, and everything that teenagers talk about. Unfortunately some of it might be perceived as threatening or inappropriate. And that is basically what he's decided that he is admitting to today."

Jourdain's trial had been expected to begin in mid-December in federal juvenile court. Several media organizations had fought unsuccessfully to have the legal proceeding against the younger Jourdain opened to the public. A similar challenge filed by survivors of some of the shooting victims was still pending.

Carol Stillday Spears, whose 15-year-old daughter Thurlene was killed, said she was frustrated to hear that the more serious charges against Jourdain were dropped.

"I think he should be punished. I lost my baby over there," Spears said. Her 16- and 18-year-old daughters don't attend Red Lake High School because they're still scared, she said.

Francis Brun lost his 28-year-old son, Derrick, in the shootings and says he has mixed feelings about the plea deal. "I'm relieved that it's over, but I'm not happy about the decision," he said. Brun said he still wants to know details that haven't been released because of Jourdain's age, and he wonders whether others may have been involved.

"There's still uncertainty in my mind," he said. "I do feel that the Justice Department has to implement changes in juvenile proceedings when they're implicated in serious crimes. These have to be made public."

High school principal Chris Dunshee said that while he understands some victims' family members may have wanted a trial, he hopes the guilty plea will bring closure and get the community out of the spotlight for a while.

"My hope is that it will lend to the healing process and not be something that will cause more divisiveness," he said. "It's just another part of the whole tragedy I think."

Michael Barrett, who maintains the Red Lake Net News Web site, said people in Red Lake will be left guessing about Jourdain's role.

"People are going to wonder," Barrett said. "They'll never really know what happened. ... They're going to use this to make their own assumptions about what happened instead of knowing the facts."

Barrett also predicted the case will be an issue as the reservation prepares for elections next year.

Karen Bailey, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said the law requires sentencing within 20 business days. She said U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger didn't have anything else to say about the case.

"We still have a juvenile case, and under federal law juvenile cases are under seal," she said.

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