Jared Cano was arrested in August 2011 for plotting to blow up Freedom High School.
Today (Dec. 5) — 16 months later — the troubled teen will learn his fate. He is scheduled to be sentenced and is facing more than three-dozen years behind bars.
A then-17-year-old Cano was arrested after authorities received a tip from an unnamed student about Cano’s intentions to wreak havoc on the first day of the 2011-12 school year at Freedom — the same school that had expelled him.
The defense had argued that Cano only mentioned the threat to the student and not the school itself, and that the bomb-making materials — shrapnel, tubing, timing devices — would not have actually worked anyway.
But the judge upheld the charges against Cano, now 18.
In reference to the bomb attack, Cano is facing two charges that carry up to 15 years each: threatening to discharge a destructive device, and attempting to discharge a destructive device. He is also facing drug charges for marijuana authorities found when they raided his New Tampa apartment.
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Cell phone videos recently released by prosecutors show Cano as an angry, troubled teen bent on destruction.
"For those of you retards who don't know, I'm the Freedom High School shooter from Tampa, Florida," Cano is reported as saying, according to the Tampa Bay Times. "Well, I will be in a couple months."
Cano pleaded no contest to the charges against him. The teen's lawyer has argued Cano could not have possibly been successful in actually carrying out the plans.
The teen's troubles started at an early age.
"Court records and police reports, as well as accounts from those who knew him, describe a rocky young life punctuated by arrests, expulsions and visits to a psychiatrist," according to the Tampa Bay Times.
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