A student whose name appears on the hit list of Christian Helms is harshly critical of the six-year sentence Helms received this week.
Helms was sentenced this week for firing a shot that narrowly missed Socastee High School resource officer Erik Karney and for bringing pipe bombs to school last September 21st.
It was revealed later in Helms' journal that he had planned a much bigger attack.
Helms had pipe bombs in his backpack and a hit list of 13 students he planned to kill. One of them was 15-year-old Jarrett Smith.
"Here's somebody that I barely know, riding in the bus with for one year, and I pretty much don't know anything about him, and here he is trying to take me out," Smith told NewsChannel 15.
With his red hair and cleft palate, Smith said he was often bullied at school, just like Helms claims he was, but Smith said he was on the hit list apparently just because Helms didn't like him.
Now, Helms has been sentenced to six years in prison after entering an Alford plea to an attempted murder charge, and Smith says, that sentence is not nearly long enough.
"I think it's ridiculous that he should just get such a little amount of time for doing such a big thing."
Smith said he'll take measures to protect himself when Helms gets out of prison. "I expect him to come out wanting to be more vicious and more brutal and more violent than when he went in."
Jarrett Smith's father said he's disappointed and disgusted with Judge Thomas W. Cooper, who sentenced Helms.
"What Judge Cooper has done with this sentence is he has shown that he places more value upon the attempted rehabilitation of a Columbine-loving, Columbine-admiring evil vicious kid, he places more value upon that, than he does on the lives and the safety of the 13 children that were on that hit list," said Chris Smith.
The elder Smith says Helms idolized the two killers in the Columbine High School attack in 1999 that left 15 people dead. Smith said Helms has shown no remorse for his actions.
"The only regret that is in Chris Helms' mind right now is the regret he didn't get to kill the people he wanted to kill." Chris Smith says he believes Helms is proud of what he did last September and plans to finish the job when he gets out of prison. "If he comes back into our lives again, we will be prepared to defend and protect ourselves with everything we have at our disposal."
Helms' defense attorney Russell Long would not comment about the Smiths' comments. Long's secretary said Helms' parents also declined to comment.
Helms was 14 at the time of the shooting. His case was moved to adult court last March. He will remain in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice until he's 17 years old.
A spokesperson for D.J.J. in Columbia said Helms will continue to receive medication and whatever counseling his social worker deems necessary.
Psychologists have testified that Helms suffered from depression.
