Spectators watched in silent disbelief yesterday as a cafeteria worker whose 12-year-old son ambushed his middle school with a loaded gun in June was abruptly escorted from a Prince William County courtroom to start serving a jail sentence.
Prosecutors had recommended that Naomi Lewis, 39, be given a five-year suspended sentence on a felony weapons charge. But the judge instead sentenced her to three months in jail.
Circuit Court Judge Richard B. Potter told Lewis that a suspended sentence would not send "the right message" and that this "type of behavior should not be tolerated." He told Lewis, who pleaded guilty in October to possession of a weapon on school property, that she did not take reasonable steps to remove the weapons, which she had locked in her van that day, and that this "was not a case of stupidity, [but] clearly of criminal conduct."
Lewis cried as the judge handed down the sentence. He also ordered her to perform 150 hours of community service upon her release. Her husband, David Lewis, seated in the back of the courtroom, put his hand over his face and shook his head. He declined to comment after the hearing.
Their son, now 13, pleaded guilty in August to three felony weapons and abduction charges. He was committed late last year to a state juvenile facility to spend an indefinite amount of time, possibly until he is 21. Department of Juvenile Justice officials will determine when he gets released.
His parents have said that he lashed out against his school because he was being tormented relentlessly by bullies. Friends and neighbors have said that he was picked on for his weight and style of clothing.
Teresa Schuler, the secretary at Bull Run Middle School who crouched underneath a desk as the boy pointed at a gun her, said yesterday that she blames the entire incident on his mother.
"I think she should have to spend the entire five years in jail," she said in an interview. "She is the reason that this happened. I thought we were going to die. I thought he was going to kill us."
On June 18, Lewis was driving to work at Bull Run Middle School in Haymarket with her son, who was in seventh grade, when she heard a rattling in the back of her van. She discovered two rifles, a shotgun and ammunition and asked him about them. He shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't know why they were there.
Lewis locked the weapons in the van, and they both went inside the school. She did not realize he had an extra key. The boy slipped outside and brought the cache of weapons and ammunition inside the school.
An assistant principal conducting a routine check heard the boy loading the gun and rushed into the office to call for help. The boy then burst into the office threatening to shoot people, pointing his weapon -- a Remington .30-06 caliber rifle -- at Schuler as she tried to call for help. A teacher eventually talked to the boy until police arrived and arrested him. No one was physically injured.
Lewis, who took the stand yesterday and apologized profusely, testified that she was in a hurry to finish up a lot of work on the last day of school and thought the guns were secured when she left them. She testified that she did not know it was unlawful to have weapons on school property but acknowledged that it was not the right thing to do.
As police conducted their investigation that day, Lewis initially denied knowing about the weapons but apologized later when confronted with her son's story. Lewis voluntarily resigned from the school after the incident, according to the Prince William County school superintendent, Edward L. Kelly.
In his remarks, Potter disapproved and said: "You . . . lied."
Lewis's attorney, Steven Smith, said that the sentence was unexpected but that he did prepare her for that possibility before yesterday's hearing. "I think the judge felt like he needed to send a message. This is everyone's nightmare, when you're thrown a curve."
Prince William Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert said he was not surprised by the judge's decision. He said his office made a more lenient recommendation for Lewis than in a typical case because her acts were not intentional.
"Punishment is certainly not uncalled for," he said. "We just felt like she has been punished enough."