Library killer: 'I do not have an answer'

CLOVIS - Speaking through tears Wednesday morning to dozens of victims who had addressed him Monday in their own impact statements, Nathaniel Jouett apologized and said he wanted to get better.

"I'm absolutely horrified by my actions and take full responsibility," he said in his first public address in court since the Aug. 28, 2017, library shooting for which he was convicted last year. Jouett, who turned 18 last month, pleaded guilty to 30 felony counts from that violence, including two first-degree murder charges for the shooting deaths of library employees Wanda Walters and Krissie Carter.

His statement followed closing remarks from attorneys, who in the preceding days had argued their request for Jouett's ensuing prison sentence to Judge James Hudson. For what Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover called "the evil, perpetrated in this community," the state requested 96 years in the Department of Corrections.

Defense attorney Stephen Taylor, emphasizing Jouett's possibilities for mental health treatment, asked that his client only serve 20 years in prison and said the case occupying the past 16 months was "a story of hopelessness and a story of despair."

The court had once again reviewed videos attendant to the shooting, including those Jouett filmed prior on his cell phone declaring his intentions of an act of mass violence as well as surveillance footage from inside the library during the event itself.

Jouett said he did "not recognize" the 16 year old on those videos but knew it was him.

"I do not have an answer to why this happened," he said. "I want to get better and I can get better."

Jouett echoed a point made the day earlier by the therapist seeing him in the Curry County Juvenile Detention Center, that he had been largely sheltered from the consequences of his actions while in custody the past 16 months. This week, he heard emotional testimony from those present or close to people inside the library as well as statements from his own family members as to how his decision to fire randomly in the Clovis-Carver Public Library had permanently altered numerous lives.

"I wish more than anything I could take those actions back," he said.

Jouett offered to meet with any victims who wanted to talk, hear from or address him directly, if it will help with their healing. That would have to be a prison visit, but his exact exposure will be announced by Hudson at 2 p.m. on Friday after the judge takes time to make that decision.

"This is probably the hardest kind of decision any judge can make," Hudson said prior to dismissing the court for recess on Wednesday. "It's been hard for everybody."