Wednesday testimony adds to Townville shooter’s portrait

Jesse Osborne’s sentencing hearing resumes at 9 o’clock this morning at the Anderson Courthouse. Testimony yesterday afternoon saw mental health experts adding brushstrokes to the portrait both the state and the defense are looking to develop of the confessed killer. Now 17 years old, Osborne pleaded guilty last year to charges stemming from his September 2016 spree that saw him kill his father and open fire at the Townville Elementary School in Anderson County, killing six-year-old first grader Jacob Hall and wounding a teacher and another student. Osborne was 14 at the time but would still have faced trial as an adult. He could receive a sentence up to life in prison without parole.
Dr. James Ballenger, who has evaluated Osborne three times on behalf of the court in December 2017, described Osborne as “almost gleeful” in describing the shooting at the school. Recalling the act excited Osborne, Ballenger testified, and the youth expressed no remorse. He also related that Osborne had also took apparent pleasure in recounting memories of torturing and killing insects and small animals. The doctor said his original findings had not changes and he opined that upon turning 18, Osborne would be diagnosed with a personality disorder, explaining that under protocols such a diagnosis cannot be made while a subject is under 18. That evaluation, Ballenger said, stays with a subject for life. Clinical psychologist Albert Teicher, testifying for the defense, outlined that he had examined Osborne more recently, in October, and determined that Osborne suffered from depression before the killings. Osborne had also told him, Teicher said, told him of fearing demonic possession. Osborne’s half brother, Ryan Brock, testifying remotely from Texas, outlined a history of abuse Jesse Osborne had endured at the hands of their father. Frequently drunk, their father’s abuse of the youth was both mental and physical, according to Brock. After his own move to Texas, he had contacted child protective services about the abuse of his younger half-brother.