Jan 11, 2006 2:19 pm US/Central
Louis Jourdain To Be Sentenced Friday
Minneapolis (AP) ―
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Louis Jourdain (File)
CBS
Sentencing will be Friday for a Red Lake, Minn. teenager who admitted to exchanging threatening computer messages with a friend who later gunned down nine people on the Chippewa Indian reservation.
Louis Jourdain, 17, admitted in November to making "threatening interstate communications." Two other charges directly connected to the schooting were dropped.
The charge Jourdain admitted to carries a five-year maximum sentence, but "the judge is limited to sentencing the juvenile until he turns age 21," said Kevin Washburn, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota and a former federal prosecutor.
However, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank will have wide discretion in determining the penalty during that time period. It could range from detention to probation, in which case the judge could impose a variety of conditions, Washburn said.
Jourdain was arrested during the investigation into a March 21 shooting rampage by 16-year-old gunman Jeff Weise, who killed nine people before killing himself.
Jourdain, the son of Red Lake Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr., was a friend of Weise.
The case has been in juvenile court, so all of the hearings have been private and most of the court documents have been sealed. Those that have been released did not name Jourdain but instead refer to him as a "Juvenile."
Friday's hearing will also be closed to the public.
Several media organizations fought unsuccessfully to have the legal proceedings opened, and survivors of some of the shooting victims also fought unsuccessfully for access.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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