The incident occurred when 17-year-old Gary Scott Pennington walked into an English classroom and fatally shot his teacher Deanna McDavid and head custodian Marvin Hicks, and held classmates hostage for 15 minutes before surrendering to police.
[1] On Monday, January 18, 1993, Pennington took a .38-caliber revolver that was owned by his father, and brought the weapon to school by concealing it in a duffel bag-type backpack.
[2] The school custodian, Marvin Hicks, and social studies teacher Jack Calhoun entered the classroom to investigate the sounds.
Pennington entered a plea of guilty but mentally ill, was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years on February 28, 1995.
[12] At approximately 1:45 p.m. on April 12, 2014, a contract food service employee at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville was seriously assaulted by Pennington.
As a result of that investigation, Pennington was indicted by a Lyon County grand jury with first degree assault, which is a Class B felony in Kentucky.
In July 2015, Pennington was convicted of first degree assault on JoAnne Smith in Lyon County and was sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison.
[12] In addition to the criminal conviction, Pennington was transferred to the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange shortly after the assault and faced internal Department of Corrections charges.