School shooter Barry Loukaitis to be re-sentenced

EPHRATA - Following a U.S. Supreme Court's decision that sentencing juvenile offenders to life without the possibility of parole is cruel and unusual punishment, Frontier Middle School shooter Barry Loukaitis will likely be eligible for parole at some point.

The question Grant County prosecutors are asking is whether his two life without the possibility of parole sentences should be reduced to 25 or 50 years.

After the Supreme Court's 2012 Miller versus Alabama decision ruled youth younger than 18 could not be jailed indefinitely the state Legislature passed the "Miller fix" in their last legislative session.

The new state law states youth younger than 16 who were previously convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life should have that sentence reduced to 25 years. Loukaitis, who was 14 at the time of the shooting in 1996, was sentenced to two life sentences after killing two students and one teacher.

The question remaining for Loukaitis and Grant County Prosecutor Angus Lee is whether Loukaitis' two life sentences should run consecutively or concurrently.

If they run concurrently, he would be eligible for parole in 2021, if they run consecutively he would be eligible in 2046.

Lee said he would ask the court to run Loukaitis' sentences consecutively.

Last month, the state Supreme Court ruled all juvenile offenders sentenced to life without the possibility of parole must be re-sentenced.

Grant County Public Defense Director Brett Hill said he was waiting for the courts to order Loukaitis' re-sentencing. He said his office is planning to represent Loukaitis at the re-sentencing hearing.

In a debate earlier this year, Moses Lake attorney and prosecutor candidate Garth Dano, who represented Loukaitis before his trial, said that was the most emotionally challenging case he ever worked.

Lee said Loukaitis would likely be re-sentenced this year or next.