Arkansas man sentenced in threat against high school

CONWAY, Ark. — A former high school student in Arkansas has been sentenced to seven years in prison for devising a plan to shoot up a school.

Circuit Judge Charles Clawson sentenced 20-year-old Daniel Croslin on Friday. Croslin pleaded guilty to making a terrorist threat in September.

Croslin made plans to shoot up Conway High School on the 20th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. Croslin was 19 when he told a counselor that he was bullied in school and wanted to get revenge, court documents show.

Police found Croslin’s notes that included a diagram of the school and evidence that he recruited friends asking them to help him buy an assault rifle and items needed for a pipe bomb. He was described as seeking attention, even if negative, according to court documents.

Clawson said he found clinical psychologist’s Hugo B. Morais testimony last week to be concerning. Morais testified that Croslin showed signs of malingering, which is exaggerating physical or psychological symptoms. Clawson also found the level of planning put into creating detailed diagrams of Conway High School to be alarming.

“It’s my judgment these are serious issues that require the court to take serious action,” Clawson said.

Before the hearing, prosecutor Hugh Finkelstein wrote a letter to the judge requesting Croslin receive a 15-year sentence accompanied by a 15-year suspended sentence. He also included a list of the 125 school shootings that have occurred following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 28 dead and two injured.