Mother of Virginia elementary school shooter pleads guilty to federal gun, marijuana charges

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The mother of the 6-year-old shooter at Richneck Elementary School pleaded guilty Monday to federal gun and marijuana charges.

Deja Nicole Taylor, whose son shot 25-year-old Abby Zwerner in her first-grade classroom on Jan. 6, pleaded guilty in Newport News federal court to a felony charge of having a firearm while also possessing marijuana — a drug that’s still illegal at the federal level.

Taylor, 25, also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of lying on a federal background check form when she bought the gun, saying she wasn’t a weed user when she really was. Being a marijuana user remains a bar to purchasing a gun under federal law.

Though the two charges carry a maximum prison term of 25 years combined, prosecutors have agreed to ask for no more than two years. Federal sentencing guidelines in still in flux, but are projected to call for a sentencing range of between 18 and 24 months.

“This does not bound the sentencing judge,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Miller told Taylor before she signed off on the deal. “The court can impose the sentence above or below the guideline range if it wants to.”

Miller’s comments came after a nearly 40-minute delay in the proceedings as the prosecution and defense disagreed over whether the previously hammered out agreement was supposed to lock the sentencing judge to a two-year cap. In the end, prosecutors held firm that the judge could go higher than two years, even as they promised not to ask for more than that.

It appeared at first like the deal might fall apart, with one of Taylor’s attorneys, James Ellenson, telling Miller that the case might have to be tried. But Eugene Rossi, one of Taylor’s lawyers, then put his arm around Taylor and whispered in her ear for several moments, apparently urging her to go forward with the agreement.

Taylor nodded, then went back to the podium and pleaded guilty to both charges.

“I think we’re going to get a very fair shake,” Rossi told the media after the hearing. “I really believe at the end of the day, Deja Taylor will get justice and compassion.”

U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis will sentence Taylor on Oct. 18.

A statement of facts admitted to by both sides — filed with the court Monday — spent several pages establishing that Taylor was a heavy marijuana user, and knew she was a heavy user when she bought the 9mm Taurus handgun at a York County gun shop six months before her son took the gun to school and shot his teacher.

Though several states have moved to legalize marijuana in recent years — including Virginia in 2021 — the drug remains illegal under federal law. Moreover, being a marijuana user is still a bar to purchasing a gun under federal law.

As the 6-year-old first-grader sat at his desk in his classroom at about 2 p.m. that day, he suddenly pulled a gun out of his front hoodie pocket, pointed it at Zwerner— seated at a reading table less than 10 feet away — and fired a single round.

The bullet went through the teacher’s left hand — which she held up as the boy opened fire — and then struck her in the upper chest and shoulder, where it remains today. The shooting garnered headlines around the nation and the world.

The statement of facts entered into court on Monday described how agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or ATF, found “copious amounts of marijuana” and edibles at various locations. That included in her bedrooms at her mother’s house, grandfather’s house, and a trash bag that had been taken from her car.

Investigators obtained the firearm background check form that Taylor filled out on July 19, 2022, at Winfree’s Firearms, a York County gun shop where she bought a Taurus Model PT111 that her son took to school in his back pack six months later.

Taylor checked a box saying she was not an “unlawful user” of weed or any other substance.

But that was a lie, the statement of facts says. Aside from the significant amount weed confiscated in the search, the statement said, Taylor’s cellphone contained “numerous messages … that illustrated the pervasive scope of Taylor’s marijuana use.”

“Taylor admits that she was a daily user of marijuana and marijuana products for approximately 11 years,” the statement said. “The defendant admits that her chronic use of marijuana was not recreational, and it affected her behavior.”

The statement also calls into question part of a statement previously made by Taylor’s attorney about how his client stored the weapon.

The lawyer, James Ellenson, has said Taylor maintains she kept the gun secured by a trigger lock, a mechanism that prevents the weapon from being fired. He also asserted the handgun was stored on the top shelf of a bedroom closet, out of the child’s reach.

But “a lockbox was not found” in Taylor’s bedrooms at either her mother or grandfather’s house, the statement said, “nor was a trigger lock or key to a trigger lock ever found.”

On the other hand, the statement of facts says a “black firearm barrel lock” was found in a trash bag that Taylor’s grandfather used to gather items from Taylor’s car when it broke down a few weeks before the Jan. 6 shooting.

Ellenson declined to comment on the apparent discrepancy Monday — and would not say whether he stands by his prior assertion that Taylor’s gun was being stored with a trigger lock the day of the shooting.

The statement of facts also delves into an April 2021 traffic stop in which a car Taylor was driving was pulled over for speeding in Williamsburg.

After the Pontiac G6 was stopped on Richmond Road at about 7 p.m., an officer walked up to the car and “detected an overwhelming odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle.”

Aside from Taylor, another adult was in the car, as was her 4-year-old son.

“Marijuana was in plain view inside the vehicle, so the officer conducted a search of the vehicle,” the statement said. Directly next to the boy “were several marijuana edibles that looked like rice treats.” The other adult’s backpack was searched, and it contained more edibles, gummies, “suspected crack cocaine,” two large bags of marijuana and other weed packages, oxycodone pills, and more.

Digital scales were also found. “Taylor’s purse was searched, and marijuana edibles and three unknown white pills were found,” the statement said. After being advised of her Miranda rights, “she denied all knowledge of drugs inside the vehicle.”

After the Newport News shooting, ATF agents executed a search warrant on Jan. 19 at the home Taylor and her son lived in with her grandfather in Denbigh.

The grandfather, Calvin Taylor, told agents that Taylor left his residence the night of the shooting and began staying with her mother, who lives off Jefferson Avenue in Oyster Point. Police found suspected weed and narcotics packaging in Taylor’s bedroom at her father’s place.

The trash bags from Taylor’s broken-down car included “a red box of ammunition,” the gun barrel lock and “a jar of suspected marijuana.”

Federal agents then searched Taylor’s mother’s home in Oyster Point. They found 24.5 grams of marijuana in Taylor’s bedroom, in addition to packages for edibles, Dutch Master cigar wraps, plastic bags and burnt marijuana cigarettes, the statement said.

That amount of weed would be legal under state law. Since marijuana legalization began in Virginia in 2021, possession of an once of marijuana — or 28.3 grams — or less is legal.

A search of Taylor’s purse also turned up “a glass jar with suspected marijuana, marijuana paraphernalia, used marijuana cigarettes and marijuana packaging material.”

After accepting the guilty plea, Miller allowed Taylor — who has no criminal record — to remain out of custody on a personal recognizance bond. She was ordered to live with her mother, refrain from using marijuana or other drugs, and not to have a gun.

Taylor also faces pending charges in Newport News Circuit Court. There’s, she’s charged with felony child neglect count and a misdemeanor count of “allowing access to firearms by children” for leaving her handgun in a location where the boy was able to get it.

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