Ex-student sentenced to 2 years for gun charge
A former Saugerties High School student who had expressed envy for the Columbine High School killers in online posts has been sentenced to two years in state prison after pleading guilty to a felony weapons charge, authorities said.
Conner Chargois, who appeared Friday in Ulster County Court, was also sentenced by County Judge Donald A. Williams to five years of post- release supervision, according to Ulster County District At- torney Holley Carnright.
Carnright said Chargois had previously pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon, a felony.
Conner Chargois and his father, Bruce Chargois, were arrested on weapons charges by the Saugerties Police Department on Feb. 27, 2018, after an investigation into Instagram posts the youth had made concerning the Columbine massacre, in which he expressed envy for shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Carnright said when police searched a business warehouse owned by Bruce Chargois, they seized several rifles, including an Uzi machine gun and an AR-15 assault rifle.
Carnright said the Saugerties Police Department determined that Conner Chargois had manufactured guns in the basement of the family house. A search turned up various gun components, ammunition and two silencers, he said.
In court, Carnright said in a press release, Conner Chargois apologized for his “selfishness” to his family, the Saugerties community, Saugerties High School, the Saugerties Police Department and the court, which the district attorney said was packed with supporters.
“He expressed his desire to accept full responsibility for his actions and to move and ultimately pursue his dream of attending college,” Carnright said.
Police said their investigation began on Feb. 21, 2018, when Saugerties High School alerted them to social media postings that praised Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 12 students, a teacher and themselves in April 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
In the posts, Chargois also expressed being “full of rage.”
“I envy Eric and Dylan,” one post said, according to police. “It must’ve been so f—ing fun. They had the right f—ing idea. I’m so full of rage . ... Nothing f—ing matters anymore.”
Police said another post stated: “I feel as though I’m not the type of person you’d want to call your friend, but I firmly believe that you do want to call me your enemy. Just remember: when the sh-t hits the fan, there won’t be any time for mercy.”
Police were alerted about
the postings exactly a week after 17 people were killed in a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla.
Saugerties police said they traced the social media postings to Conner Chargois with the help of the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office and state police, and that the teen later admitted authoring the posts.
Both the teen and his father initially denied owning firearms and said there were none in the house, but police said their statements were not consistent with what the investigation turned up.
Bruce Chargois later admitted there were firearms in the home and he removed them immediately after his first interview by investigators, police said. They said the father then took police to his place of business on Glasco Turnpike in Saugerties and showed them five hidden firearms. The weapons included “a fully automatic 9mm Uzi and an AR-15 assault rifle,” the Saugerties Police Department said in a press release at the time.
Armed with a warrant, Saugerties police and federal agents searched their Sawyerkill Terrace residence and found ammunition of varying calibers, homemade knives, machine-fabricated gun parts, a prototype of a firearm that Conner Chargois admitted he had been manufacturing, and a number of completed homemade firearms with both .22- and 9mm-caliber capacities, police said.
The elder Chargois was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, and obstructing governmental administration, a misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018, to tampering with evidence, a felony. He is expected to be sentenced by Williams on Thursday, Feb. 14.
Police also said at the time of his arrest that an order of protection was issued against Conner Chargois on behalf of the Saugerties school district.
The case was prosecuted by Chief Assistant District Attorney Michael Kavanagh. Chargois was represented by attorney Cappy Weiner.