Student gets 35 years in Md. high school shooting

TOWSON, Md. A high school sophomore has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for a Maryland high school cafeteria shooting that injured a student with Down syndrome.

Deputy State's Attorney John Cox said 15-year-old Robert Gladden Jr. was sentenced Monday for the shooting at Perry Hall High School outside Baltimore last year.

Gladden pleaded guilty last week to attempted first-degree murder as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Gladden also pleaded guilty to using a firearm in a crime of violence.

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Seventeen-year-old Daniel Borowy was hit in the back with a shotgun blast on the first day of classes Aug. 27. He missed more than two months of school while recuperating from his injuries.

No one else was injured, CBS Baltimore affiliate WJZ reports. A second shot during the struggle to subdue Gladden hit the ceiling.

After Gladden was taken into custody, the station reports that a suicide note was found in his pocket. While in custody, Gladden said he had no specific target in mind.

"I didn't have any one person that I was trying to kill. I just turned to the side and shot," Gladden said in his interviews with authorities. "About two months ago I was just going to kill myself, but then I realized it wouldn't get the point across."

Gladden was facing a maximum sentence of 40 years. His lawyer worked to reduce that sentence.

"We don't penalize people with mental illness, and now what we're doing - we're penalizing people with mental illness," said Gladden's lawyer, George Psoras, according to WJZ.