The trial of a Seymour High School teen linked to a plot to shoot a fellow student in 2018 began Tuesday in Jackson Superior Court II in Brownstown.

The teen, who was 15 at the time of his Jan. 19 arrest, faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated attempted battery, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit aggravated battery, conspiracy to commit possession of a firearm and attempted dangerous possession of a firearm.

Those charges stem from his involvement in an alleged school shooting plot set for 2018, police said.

A second teen later linked to the case already has been tried and convicted in juvenile court but has not been sentenced.

The teen standing trial Tuesday in front of Judge Bruce MacTavish told police it was a “running joke” that was being taken wrong and not a plot. He also has been tied to graphic threats that were made on social media against a specific classmate at the school.

Through Facebook correspondence with another juvenile, Prosecutor Daniel Carnes spent nearly an hour during the hearing outlining explicit, detailed accounts of what the student said he would like to do to the classmate.

The student admitted twice in the exchange to being made so mad by the presence of the classmate at school that he had “beat his dog” out of anger, according to documents read by Seymour Detective Crystal Schapson during the hearing.

The juvenile said in the correspondence that he saw the classmate as a potential love rival, but that the classmate had taken no action to provoke the hatred and may have even been unaware of the juvenile’s feelings until the investigation.

The mother of the juvenile targeted by the threats issued a statement after the hearing.

“This has been a complete nightmare for my family,” she wrote. “To think that someone would want to harm your child, two people that he had never even had a conversation with, is impossible to process or understand.

“We have been through hell and back through no fault of our own. I thank God every day for the courage of the student who stood up and did the right thing and reported it to the school counselors.”

Schapson said the room of the juvenile accused of making treats was searched, and she found what she believed to be “a death note.”

The note was addressed to the other juvenile involved in the Facebook correspondence.

That teen was found guilty of the conspiracy to commit aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit possession of a firearm earlier this year in juvenile court and is awaiting sentencing. A third charge of conspiracy to commit murder was dismissed.

The note found in the bedroom of the teen currently on trial reads, “If you are reading this, I’m either dead or have ran away, but you’ll know which.”

The note also explains his thoughts on various other students in the school, highlighting his feelings for and against about 20 other students and reiterating his hatred for the specific classmate, Schapson said.

She said the juvenile, who did not speak at the hearing, had expressed interest in the April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shooting in which two students killed 13 individuals and injured 24 others before committing suicide.

At one point, the juvenile had sent a message through Facebook containing the photographs of the two shooters at Columbine with the message “Thank goodness these two are my idols,” she said.

Additionally, the juvenile stated in a Facebook message, “4/20/2018 some people will find out what the state of nothingness is like,” referencing the juvenile and the recipient’s senior year.

The juvenile also wrote he had learned how to create pipe bombs through his study as well as arguing with the juvenile recipient of the Facebook messages about the best way to commit untraceable murder.

He had also drawn up floor plans of the 300 building of Seymour High School and told Schapson he was unsure of what to do after high school but architecture may have been a career path and was trying out drawing buildings, Schapson said.

She said she did not find other drawings of buildings in his possessions.

The mother of the targeted student said she would like to encourage the community to support the high school and take whatever measures are needed to secure the campus.

“We were lucky a tragedy was prevented,” she said. “Not in the future, but in the present.”

The defense, represented by attorney Mark Dove, in the case called no witnesses on during the hearing. He did point out that talking about the commission of a crime and even planning a crime was not a crime.

A definitive step had to be made toward committing the crime, something he said he believed the state had not proven.

As to any conspiracy charges, Dove said the prosecution had to prove that an agreement had been formed with another party, in this case the other juvenile, and that one or the other had taken an overt act toward committing a crime or crimes.

He told MacTavish that was something he believed was not proven during the hearing.

MacTavish did not reach any decision at the end of the hearing and said he planned to deliberate on the admittance of some of the evidence.

That stems from a defense objection to the admittance of some of the conditional evidence requiring the state to prove a connection between the two defendants.