Ohio man sentenced in school plot in Indiana

CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio man accused of plotting with an Indiana teenager on MySpace to carry out a Columbine-style attack at the boy’s high school was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison.

Lee Billi said he was sorry and asked for help before he was sentenced in Cuyahoga County court.

“I apologize for what happened,” Billi quietly told the judge. “I was in a Catch-22. I was in a job that didn’t provide medical. I need help. That’s all I can say, I need help.”

Billi, 34, pleaded guilty in February to inciting to violence and received a three-year sentence on that charge. Billi also pleaded guilty to 38 child pornography charges and one count of possessing criminal tools, referring to his personal computer. He received a combined sentence of seven years on the other charges.

Prosecutors say Billi, of the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, and a 16-year-old Indiana boy in April discussed carrying out the attacks at the high school and another unidentified location.

Authorities have said a deputy working at the school discovered the alleged plot in Internet postings in which the teenager allegedly discussed his support for the “Columbine shooters,” a reference to the 1999 massacre at a Colorado high school in which two students killed 12 classmates and a teacher, and then committed suicide.

Billi’s brief remarks in court shed no light on what he intended to happen through his online chats. He could have been sentenced to more than 300 years on all the charges.

“This defendant was discovered before anything worse occurred. Thank heavens for that,” Judge Timothy McMonagle said.

The judge gave Billi credit for about 11 months served county jail and labeled him as a sexual offender.

Public defender William Thompson told the judge that Billi and the teenager were fantasizing and had no intent of following through on a violent plot. Thompson said Billi struggles with complicated emotional problems.

Billi has no prior criminal record and worked as a security guard, Thompson said.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Jennifer Driscoll told McMonagle that the threat was real.

“They had set a date. They had code words. Mr. Billi was coaching this boy about how to get guns and how to make bombs. This man is a danger,” Driscoll said.

Billi had been downloading child pornography since 2002, she said. The pornography was found when police checked his computer for evidence of online chats with the teen in South Bend, Ind., who pleaded guilty in June to plotting to attack Penn High School near Mishawaka. He was placed in juvenile detention.

Authorities who investigated believe the two chatted online about also targeting a place with an underground parking garage, but the location was not identified.

The Indiana boy told authorities he did not know the man with whom he had communicated.