Would-be school shooter’s cellmate sentenced for jail beating

Published 1:30 am Saturday, June 1, 2019

EVERETT — When a would-be school shooter tried recruiting fellow inmates to his cause during a stay in the Snohomish County Jail, one man protested.

Then, in May 2018, the whistleblower was viciously beaten to the point of losing consciousness.

The attacker, 30-year-old Travis Hammons, was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for second-degree assault, the high end under state guidelines. He pleaded guilty to the charge in May.

Hammons was the cellmate of teenager Joshua O’Connor, who in February was convicted of a plot to shoot classmates at ACES High School in south Everett.

While in jail, the victim had considered O’Connor a friend, but grew concerned when the teenager asked him to carry out attacks on local schools, according to court papers. On one occasion, O’Connor reportedly talked about turning pressure cookers into makeshift explosives to bomb Kamiak High School. Another time, he said he wanted to drive by Mariner High School and shoot students from the road.

Instead of joining O’Connor, the man told his attorney about the conversations.

Shortly after, on May 2, 2018, O’Connor invited the man to his cell for coffee, charging papers say.

The man walked over, but got a strange feeling. He went down the stairs, and O’Connor followed.

Someone asked if the man was going to testify against O’Connor. Then he was confronted by Hammons, who repeatedly punched and kicked the man and slammed his head against the wall.

The victim said he lost consciousness. When he came to, he heard an inmate saying, “You’re going to kill him.”

Hammons reportedly replied, “Good, that’s what I’m trying to do.”

The man was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett with a broken nose, bruising and bleeding on the brain.

Prosecutors noted that it wasn’t the first time Hammons has attacked someone. He previously had been convicted three times of felony assault, and another two times for misdemeanor assault. As a juvenile, he pleaded guilty in 2005 to second-degree rape.

At the sentencing, Judge Jennifer Langbehn ordered that Hammons will have no contact with the victim for 10 years.

Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.