Trial begins for accused in school plot case

Marshfield High allegedly targeted

BROCKTON - The four high school students were tired of being picked on.

So they started talking about a Columbine-style attack at Marshfield High School, where they would shoot those who had been mean to them, police said.

But before the plan could be carried out, three of the students went to police. They named Tobin Kerns, then 16, as the mastermind of the plot.

But Kerns blamed Joseph Nee, a close friend he said was trying to get back at him because the two had a fight over a girl.

Nee will go to trial today in Brockton Superior Court, charged in a plot to set off bombs in the school and shoot everyone on a lengthy hit list of students, teachers, police officers, and firefighters.

Kerns, now 19, is currently serving a 10-month prison sentence after being convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and threatening to use deadly weapons. The other two, Daniel Farley and Joseph Sullivan, were granted immunity. Both youths testified for prosecutors at Kerns's trial and are also expected to testify against Nee.

Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz would not comment on the case before trial. In court documents, prosecutors depict Kerns and Nee as equal partners in the plan.

In September 2004, Nee, Farley and Sullivan told Marshfield police that Kerns had compiled a hit list and was planning the attack for April 20, 2005 to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in Colorado that left 15 people dead.

Nee, whose father heads the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, was charged a month later as a conspirator in the plot.

All four youths were part of a group of students who called themselves NBK, for "Natural Born Killers," a movie about a couple who go on a killing spree.

Nee is charged with conspiracy to commit mass murder, promotion of anarchy, and the threatened use of deadly weapons at school.

A search of Kerns's home turned up computer files on bomb building and a shopping list of weapons and ammunition. Police said they also found diagrams of the school that include plans for padlocking exits.

Farley told police that Nee recruited him to join NBK, a group he said was formed to protect younger students who were being bullied. Farley said Nee asked him at the time, "What would you do if I shot up the school?"

During his trial, Kerns testified that Nee came up with the plan to attack the school. Kerns said he never thought the plan would be carried out. Kerns testified that he and Nee had gotten into a scuffle over Kerns's girlfriend four days before Nee went to police.

Farley and Sullivan testified that Nee urged them to go to police with him in September 2004 and put the blame on Kerns.

Nee's attorney, Thomas Dreschsler, said Nee, now 21, is looking forward to his trial because it will give him "an opportunity to have everybody hear all the evidence from his point of view."

"I think everybody will get the complete picture of what did and did not happen," Dreschsler said.

Dreschsler said Kerns's claim that Nee was the mastermind was disproved at his trial.