Judge to decide fate of 14-year-old convicted in teacher's killing
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It is now the boy's cherished reminder of a murdered father.
Circuit Judge Richard Wennet will decide what price Barry Grunow's killer will pay when he sentences 14-year-old Nathaniel Brazill today in a Palm Beach Country courtroom. The seventh-grader shot the 35-year-old English teacher in the face with a stolen gun last year at Lake Worth Middle School.
Prosecutors asked Wennet to lock the seventh-grader away for life, saying they fear the teenager will cause more pain and problems if he ever enters society again.
Brazill's attorneys pleaded for the lightest possible sentence — 25 years. Under the state's so-called 10-20-Life gun law, Wennet has no choice but to give Brazill a sentence that will keep him behind bars at least until age 38.
The hearing provided a chance for Grunow's family, friends and co-workers to talk about the life, and sudden death, of a man they cherished. It also was a chance for Brazill and his parents to ask for forgiveness — and a ray of hope for his freedom, one day.
For the first time in more than 14 months of legal proceedings, widow Pam Grunow spoke in court. The mother of Sam and 1-year-old Lee-Anne Grunow had shied away from most of the trial.
She didn't know what sentence would be appropriate, she told Wennet, for Brazill's "angry, crazy moment" that has left her, her family and friends with broken hearts.
"I cannot make a recommendation because it is not my job," she told Wennet. "I am at a loss, and I do not feel I can be objective. I only hope I can contribute something to this difficult decision. I hope that as a society we can somehow create good out of this sad loss of the public servant and great guy that I love."
She then left the courthouse, so she wasn't there later when Brazill looked directly at the other Grunow family members and apologized.
"Mr. Grunow was a great man and a great teacher," he said. "I'm sorry I took him away from you. I've been thinking about how his kids will feel when they are my age. I've been thinking a lot about Mrs. Grunow and how alone she is."
He said again he never meant to harm Grunow. At the trial, Brazill said he pulled the stolen .25-caliber semiautomatic to scare Grunow into letting him speak to two girls in a classroom..
Brazill had retrieved the gun after being suspended earlier that day, the last day of school, for throwing water balloons.
Brazill's parents, Nathaniel Brazill Sr. and Polly Powell, said they don't know why their son killed his teacher and they pray for the Grunow family.
"I know you're hurting," Polly Powell said. "Even though Mr. Grunow is gone, Nathaniel is gone from me right now, too. I just pray that one day you'll forgive him for what he's done. None of us will ever forget because this is too heavy for anyone."
In closing statements, defense attorney Robert Udell pressed for a lighter sentence by calling Brazill one of the finest young men he has seen and saying he could be rehabilitated.
Prosecutor Marc Shiner called Brazill "scary," saying he never wanted to meet another widow like Pam Grunow.