JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WJAC) — Two teens charged with what investigators call a conspiracy to commit a school shooting at Westmont Hilltop High School in Cambria County will go to trial.
After a four-hour hearing Thursday, charges were bounded over by Magistrate Judge Kevin Price to the Court of Common Pleas against Logan Pringle, 17, and Preston Hinebaugh, 17, for several felony charges that they conspired together in the plot that was foiled last month after a parent told the school the Pringle had been in the school.
“We believe the charges were properly bound over and we will continue to investigate and prosecute these crimes with vigor,” said District Attorney Greg Neugebauer.
Prosecutors presented evidence in court Thursday showing that the two left Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center early on December 7th to drive up to Westmont where Preston was a student and Pringle had been ordered in 2018 to have no contact with the school because he had set a fire in the school and had later threatened to “shoot up the school.”
The school’s principal Lynn Clement also testified that at the time drawings were found titled “The Rebellion” and “The Purge” in his possession.
Security video showed in court that Hinebaugh was buzzed in through one set of doors with Pringle behind him, then both briefly went into a vestibule and then into the school office to get a mask. Pringle then quickly went back into the vestibule while Hinebaugh exited the office and into the school through an office door, then let Pringle in through the second set of front doors.
Video evidence then showed the two walking around and pointing out security cameras. Testimony showed Hinebaugh also taking a Snapchat image of Pringle with the phrase “he’s back” before Pringle went out a side door on his own.
A juvenile student testified that Hinebaugh had told her that Pringle had been in the school and he had been armed in some unspecified way.
Police testified Pringle had done a lot of searching online of guns in the days leading up to his walk through the school and he knew of an AR-10 rifle inside Hinebaugh’s closet. They also said Hinebuagh’s father gave them a gun he said was the one in question, but further investigation and search warrants showed otherwise.
Police also said Hinebaugh destroyed his phone hours after the two were in the school.
Hinebaugh’s defense attorney Matt Zatko argued Hinebaugh had nothing to do with a conspiracy.
“There was no agreement to shoot up the school there was not an agreement to commit terrorism,” Zatko said. “We heard absolutely nothing in here today that there was any validity that there would be a shooting at Westmont.”
Zatko argued that there’s no communication suggesting any plot to shoot up the school and since Pringle had entered the first door and the office by the secretaries in the office, he was in essence being allowed in. Zatko also argued that the student who testified did not say in court what police said she told them, that Hinebuagh had said Pringle had “come to finish what he started years ago.”
Both Zatko and Pringle’s attorney Ashlan Clark said that the conspiracies were simply based on years-old threats that were not been renewed since then.
But Price said there was enough evidence to send the case to trial, though he did imply that given the level of proof needed in a jury trial, the door was open about their being an overt act of conspiracy.
“He clearly indicted that given the higher burden in the common pleas and the higher burden with a jury that the outcome very much could be different,” Zatko said.
“Conspiracies aren’t always written down on paper, or not always verbalized,” Neugebauer said. “There is a ton of case law that the commonwealth referenced today about conspiracy and the circumstantial nature a lot of times of these types of cases.”
Pringle remains in jail while Hinebaugh is out on bail. Both will be formally arraigned next month.
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