The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher in Virginia earlier this year was sentenced to nearly two years in prison on Wednesday.
Deja Taylor,26, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for using marijuana while owning a firearm.
Marijuana is legal in many U.S. states, including Virginia, but it is still a controlled substance under U.S. law and is strictly regulated by federal authorities. Federal law prohibits people from owning a gun if they have been convicted of a felony, been committed to a mental institution or an unlawful user of a controlled substance.
Taylor was also accused of lying about her marijuana use on a form when she bought the 9 mm handgun, which her son used in January to shoot his first-grade teacher, Abby Zwerner, in her classroom at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia.
The bullet went through Zwerner’s left hand before getting lodged in her chest. She spent weeks in the hospital enduring multiple surgeries.
“This case cries out for a sentence of imprisonment,” U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis said while handing down the ruling, according CBS. “It’s just a travesty that (Zwerner) has had to suffer in that way.”
Zwerner told NBC in March that the shooting changed her life.
“I remember him pointing the gun at me, I remember the look on his face,” she said, adding: “I’m not sure when the shock will ever go away, because of just how surreal it was and you know, the vivid memories that I have of that day. I think about it daily. Sometimes I have nightmares.”
She has filed a $40 million lawsuit against Newport News Public Schools alleging that administrators ignored warning signs and were aware of the student’s “history of random violence” prior to the shooting.
Taylor, meanwhile, faces a separate sentencing in December on state charges for child neglect. Prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charge of reckless storage of a firearm as part of a plea deal.
