2 Westside students charged in death plot

Two 17-year-olds arrested Thursday at Westside High School were charged as adults Friday with conspiracy to commit capital murder and possession of a firearm by a minor on school property.

Authorities say Dakota Hayes took a gun to school Thursday and handed it off in the boys restroom to Patrick Houston.

A third student saw the gun hand-off and reported it.

The school was placed on lockdown, officials said, while authorities secured a .22 pistol found in Houston’s backpack and took the teens into custody.

The boys both told authorities in interviews that Houston wanted to use the gun to kill a 16-year-old co-worker, according to a probable-cause affidavit. Hayes said he knew what Houston planned when he gave him the weapon, the affadavit says.

The two spoke not just of the intended killing, according to the affidavit, but also how best to dispose of the body.

Both are being held in lieu of a $250,000 bond, and if they are released, they are mandated to stay on house arrest and have no contact with each other.

The Westside district’s middle school was the site of a shooting March 24, 1998, that left four students and a teacher dead and 10 others wounded after two students, 11-year-old Andrew Golden and 13-year-old Mitchell Johnson, opened fire on campus.

Johnson hid in a brushy area at the edge of the school while Golden pulled a fire alarm. As students exited the school, the two opened fire from the brushy area with high-powered hunting rifles taken from the house of Golden’s grandfather.