Ex-student pleads guilty to law school murders

A former law school student has admitted killing the school’s dean, a professor and a student as part of a deal to deal avoid the death sentence.

Peter Odighizuwa burst into tears as he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms plus 28 years on firearms, capital murder and attempted capital murder charges.

He said that he wished he could bring back his three victims.

“You’re going to be in prison for the rest of your life,” Judge Michael Moore said in Buchanan County Circuit Court.

Police said Odighizuwa, who had flunked out of the Appalachian School of Law, brought a gun to campus last January and killed Dean Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales. Three other students were wounded.

Odighizuwa, 45, admitted to the slayings as part of a plea agreement to avoid a possible death sentence. He had been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic but was found mentally competent to stand trial.

“He’s sorry for what he did,” defence lawyer Roger Groot said after the hearing.

County Prosecutor Sheila Tolliver had vowed to seek Odighizuwa’s execution while attending memorial services for the victims.

She declined to comment after Friday’s hearing, but her assistant handed out a statement that said prosecutors had “concerns over the mental issues in the case.”

The three students wounded in the shootings sued the law school, claiming school officials coddled Odighizuwa despite his failing grades because the Nigerian native was one of the school’s few black students.

“It’s unfortunate that this trial was handled in this way,” said Emmett Yeary, an attorney representing three wounded students.

The law school has declined to comment on the lawsuit.