ANDERSON Co., S.C. (WSPA) – Jesse Osborne, the teen who shot his father before opening fire outside Townville Elementary School, pleaded guilty Wednesday to murdering his father and 6-year-old Jacob Hall. 

Osborne, now 16, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder.

Osborne was 14 at the time he killed his father, Jeffrey Osborne, before driving to Townville Elementary School and fatally shooting first-grader Jacob Hall and injuring two other students and a teacher in September 2016.

Osborne has spent the last two years behind bars in Greenville County. He told a judge Wednesday that he knew his plea would give up his right to a jury trial.

Osborne will be sentenced at a later hearing. He faces up to two life sentences without parole, plus 90 years. 

Tenth Circuit Solicitor David Wagner expects Osborne will be sentenced in late spring or early summer 2019. 

“A hearing prior to sentencing Osborne is required due to the State seeking a sentence of life without parole for the crimes committed by Osborne since he was under 17 years old at the time he committed these offenses,” Wagner said in a statement. 

After Osborne’s guilty plea, Wagner released the following statement:

“The State will not be entering into any plea deals with Jesse Osborne. I am seeking the maximum sentence in this case, life without parole, which is the appropriate sentence for the murder of six-year-old Jacob Hall, and the attempted murders of his classmates and teachers.”  

The law firm representing the estate of Jacob Hall and other Townville survivors issued the following statement on Wednesday: 

The Dunaway Law Firm, LLC represents the Estate of Jacob Hall along with other Townville survivors and families. The tragic events of September 28, 2016 not only resulted in the loss of someone very special, loving, and adored but devasted and inflicted irreparable harm on the Hall family as well as the entire Townville community. Jesse Osborne’s guilty plea today confirms our belief in the justice system.

His admission in open court will hopefully bring some closure to the family as they try to move forward without little Jacob. The emotional and physical injuries inflicted by Jesse upon his fellow students that day will never go away even by his admission here today. However, we can rest assured that he will spend the rest of his days in a cold metal jail cell.

The Hall family and this law firm still believe and are inflexibly committed to the fact that had the proper school safety procedures and first-aid medical equipment been available on September 28, 2016, this tragedy could have been avoided.

It is our hope and pledge for every school in South Carolina to have a proper emergency plan in place and to be outfitted with adequate first-aid supplies at the conclusion of our lawsuit.

Townville Elementary simply did not have these items available on the day of the shooting and it is our mission to make certain that a tragedy like this never happens again here at home.

We believe that at the completion of this case, our goals will have been accomplished.