Kipland Kinkel was sentenced Nov. 10 to nearly 112 years in prison for the 1998 shooting rampage that left his parents and two classmates dead. (AP file)

EUGENE, Ore. –– Kip Kinkel, who gunned down his parents and then opened fire at his high school cafeteria, killing two students, was sentenced today to nearly 112 years in prison.

Judge Jack Mattison said emotional statements made by victims and their families at the weeklong sentencing hearing convinced him "this case needed accountability for each of the wounded."

Earlier, Kinkel apologized in court for the rampage that ended at Thurston High School in Springfield, saying the acts took him to "a place of deterioration and self-loathing."

"I thought about what I could say to make people feel better. Nothing I can do can take away the pain and destruction I caused. I am truly sorry for all of this," 17-year-old Kinkel said.

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Kinkel pleaded guilty to four counts of murder for the four deaths and 26 counts of attempted murder. He had agreed to serve 25 years in prison for the murders, but Mattison had the option of adding time for the attempted murders.

Defense lawyer Mark Sabitt, urging Mattison to give Kinkel hope of being freed from prison someday, recounted testimony that Kinkel was psychotic and driven by hallucinatory voices to commit the murders in May 1998.

"This defendant is mentally ill. He is neurologically impaired and he is a child," Sabitt said.

Kinkel insisted he loved his parents, whom he killed after he was expelled from school for having a stolen gun in his locker.

"These events have taken me down to a place of deterioration and self-loathing I didn't know existed," he said.

The judge told Kinkel that, if he met his own goal of being a model prisoner and helping others behind bars, he may one day qualify to have his sentence commuted.

Mattison imposed the 25-year sentence to which Kinkel had agreed for the murder convictions, then crafted a combination of concurrent and consecutive sentences on the 26 attempted murder counts that added up to another 86.67 years in prison.

Victims were allowed to make statements about the shootings Tuesday.

"I don't care if you're sick, you're insane or crazy," said Jake Ryker, who tackled Kinkel despite being shot in the chest. "I can't stand here and look at you without wanting to kill you."

Ryker was one of the 50 witnesses – most of the wounded students and many of their parents – who stood one by one to express with tears and anger their desire that Kinkel spend the rest of his life in prison.

Kinkel had hidden his face or put his head on the table earlier in the hearing when people described his crimes, but sat up during the victims' statements, apparently keeping a resolution recounted by his sister, Kristin, to listen to the victims. When people asked that he look at them, he complied.

Jennifer Alldredge, shot while talking with friends about a surprise birthday party for her boyfriend, said she is still startled by loud noises, embarrassed by her scars and somehow ashamed of what happened to her.

"I hate you, I hate what you have done, I hate what I have become because of you," Alldredge said. "I'm so tired of having all this run my life."

Many parents cried, and one had to be told by the judge not to threaten Kinkel. Students described how their grades had gone down, old friends had deserted them and they were haunted by nightmares.

Despite his heroism, Ryker said he was plagued by guilt for not acting quickly enough to save his friend, Mikael Nickolauson, who lay dead underneath a cafeteria table before Ryker tackled Kinkel.

"I question whether I should have pulled the trigger" and killed Kinkel, Ryker said.

A few expressed forgiveness, but none expressed any greater understanding of what had happened.

"I ask myself every day, 'Why, Kip, why? '" said Rebecca Lynn, whose daughter, Betina, was almost paralyzed from a bullet to the back. "Why did I take Betina to the doctor every week for five months? Why did you shoot her? Why did you feel such need to destroy lives? "

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