BY The Associated Press
PADUCAH, Ky. -- A Heath High School student who exchanged e-mail messages with a 14-year-old accused of killing three classmates has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury.
The McCracken County grand jury is scheduled to investigate the Dec. 1 shooting early next month. Toby Nace, a Heath student who will be a junior this fall, was served Tuesday with a subpoena, said his lawyer, Dennis Null of Mayfield. Toby has not been charged. Court records reveal that Michael Carneal, a 14-year-old freshman at the time of the slayings, told Toby he planned to bring guns to school.
Mr. Carneal is accused of killing three girls and wounding five other students during a prayer group meeting in the school lobby. He is to stand trial in October.
An affidavit for a search warrant refers to e-mail messages between the two teens. One message from Toby referred to the "timing of the event in the hall," the document said.
Records pertaining to search warrants executed in the days following the shooting were filed in court May 7. The documents show that Mr. Carneal admitted in a videotaped interview with detectives that he had spoken with Toby at some time before the shootings about "the taking of guns to Heath High School."
Investigators also disclosed in an affidavit requesting a warrant to search Toby's personal computer that an expert who examined the hard drive of Mr. Carneal's computer found numerous e-mail messages between Mr. Carneal and Toby.
Mr. Carneal is accused of walking into Heath High's lobby and opening fire with a .22-caliber pistol as the student prayer group was disbanding. Detectives say Mr. Carneal burglarized a gun safe at Toby's home, apparently around Thanksgiving, and took the gun used in the killings.
Court records also claim the alleged murder weapon was fired at a target in another schoolmate's back yard less than a week before the shooting.
Those documents say that Mr. Carneal and the friend, Michael Alonso, admitted in interviews that "the gun used in the shootings at the high school was fired in Michael Alonso's back yard at a rubber ball" on the Wednesday before the shooting at the school.
