15-year-old Sentenced to Four Years

CAMDEN, N.J. -- The youngest of three teenage boys accused of plotting to kill other teens they considered enemies and then shooting people at random in Oaklyn, N.J., received a four-year prison sentence on Friday.

Christopher Olson (pictured, above with his father), who turned 15 last week, will serve his sentence in a juvenile facility. He will not be eligible for parole for three years.

The teen, wearing a blue suit of his father's that hung off his lanky frame, told the judge this before he was sentenced: "I'd like to say I'm sorry for what I've done and for the people who thought they were going to be in danger."

After Olson was sentenced, he and his father, Joseph, shared a long embrace in the courtroom.

"There's not much you can say," Joseph Olson said afterward. "You know, try to stay strong."

The sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Samuel D. Natal was shorter than prosecutors had planned to recommend when Olson pleaded guilty to a single weapons offense in August.

Another teen accused in the plot, Cody Jackson, took a deal last month under which he will serve five years without possibility of parole for carjacking. Prosecutors then said they would adjust their recommendation for Olson, whom they described as the least culpable of the three.

Matthew Lovett, 18, the accused ringleader in the plot, has not taken a plea agreement and remains in Camden County Jail awaiting trial on charges of carjacking, conspiracy to commit murder, aggravated assault and weapons possession.

Police found a cache of guns, swords and 2,000 rounds of ammunition when they arrested the teens on July 6 in Oaklyn, a Philadelphia suburb.

Authorities said Olson had left the rifle he was carrying under a tree and lagged back while the other two teens tried to hijack a passing car before dawn that day. He joined the plot months after it began, authorities said, and computer evidence was seized from the other defendants' homes but not Olson's.

When Olson pleaded guilty as an adult to the weapons possession charge in August, prosecutors dropped other charges against him.

He had been charged with carjacking, conspiracy to murder and weapons offenses, and could have faced more than 40 years in prison if convicted.

Pleading guilty as an adult means Olson will always have a criminal record.

Joseph Olson said his son, who has learning disabilities and has lived an unstable life with periods of homelessness, associated with Lovett only because the two shared an interest in drawing.

In court, Joseph Olson sat next to the mother and older sister of Jackson.

Jackson's mother, Judith Jackson, said that Joseph Olson has become a regular for dinner with her family. The bond is the fate of their sons.

"They were kids who were led astray by a sick 18-year-old," she said.

Camden County Prosecutor Vincent P. Sarubbi said he has spent time with the families of those targeted in the plot, and they fear the day that Lovett, Jackson and Olson are freed.

"They live in fear every day," Sarubbi said, "of what could have happened in Oaklyn, New Jersey."

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Author: NBC10