Mason Larrison
A former Columbus East football player will serve six months in a work-release program and the remainder of his sentence in home detention for threatening another student with a handgun on the high school’s property.
Mason D. Larrison, 18, 3572 Grange Drive, was sentenced by Bartholomew Circuit Judge Kelly Benjamin Monday to spend the next 180 days at the county jail. However, he will be let out to go back and forth to his job as part of the program.
After the six months of work release are up, Larrison will spend the next three-and-a-half years on a home detention program, Benjamin said.
On March 30, Larrison pleaded guilty to one count of intimidation with a deadly weapon as a Level 5 felony. Punishment for a Level 5 felony conviction is a sentence of between one and six years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $10,000. While Larrison will pay court costs and various other fees, he was not fined.
While testifying in his own defense Monday, Larrison said he saw a male student sitting next to his ex-girlfriend at the Columbus East-Brownstown Central basketball game on Feb 2. While he later got a handgun out of his car and searched for his ex-girlfriend’s companion, Larrison said it wasn’t out of jealousy. Rather, he was defending a male friend who was called a vulgar name by the male who was sitting with his girlfriend.
Larrison admitted sending threatening online messages, warning the victim he had a gun and that he wanted to kill him. After the male got into the backseat of a vehicle occupied by two front seat riders parked in the East school parking lot, Larrison ran up to the vehicle, pulled out a Taurus 9mm handgun, cocked it and pointed it at occupants in the car, a court affidavit said.
“I wasn’t in a good mental state,” Larrison said. “My finger was never on the trigger. It was only a scare tactic.”
Although Larrison tried to get the intended victim to step out of the vehicle, the car sped from the scene and Larrison’s efforts to follow it were unsuccessful, police reports state.
While on the stand, Larrison said he suffered from depression, bipolar disorder and occasional hallucinations. He admitted he was not taking medication at the time of the offense, and had attempted suicide a few weeks earlier, he testified.
While the defendant said he had been in therapy for six months prior to the threats, Larrison’s mother said she does not believe her son was taking those sessions seriously.
The judge said she was bothered after Larrison testified he purchased the Taurus 9mm handgun from a friend a few weeks before the incident, and secretly kept it in his car.
“What was the purpose of buying the gun without telling your parents?’ Benjamin asked. “What was the purpose of taking the gun on school property? That is what is really scary.”
The judge said she was also bothered that 15 to 20 minutes passed between the time Larrison started sending threatening Instagram messages to the intended victim – to when he began brandishing the cocked gun at individuals in the car. Benjamin said that should have been sufficient time for the defendant to come to his senses.
While Larrison said he occasionally used marijuana and consumed alcohol prior to last February, Larrison says the only mind-altering substances he’s currently taking are prescription medications for mental illness.
Larrison will have to live under several strict conditions, submit to drugs tests and consent to police searches while on home detention, the judge said. His parents, who are divorced and both married to other people now, were told they could have no guns or alcoholic beverages in their home if their son was staying with them.
After local residents learned four people were wounded on May 23 at the Lincoln Park basketball court and saw news accounts of several other shootings involving teens, Benjamin said she know some area residents might prefer that Larrison be sent to prison.
Larrison has no criminal history, appears genuinely remorseful, takes his prescribed medication as directed, understands the value of his therapy, and has a good support system, Benjamin said.
Larrison is and likely will remain a part of this community, so it is better to help him learn to cope with his problems rather than just punish him a short time and set him free, the judge said.
