One year after Gabe Parker was charged with murder and assault for gunning down fellow students at Marshall County High School, killing two and injuring 14, no date has been set for his trial.

And because lawyers for both sides must sort through mountains of evidence, including the contents of more than 100 cellphones seized and interviews with as many as 2,000 people who were at the school on Jan. 23, 2018, the case likely won’t be resolved until 2021.

But unlike the prosecution of Michael Carneal, who pleaded guilty in 1998 to killing three students and injuring five at Heath High School in West Paducah, Parker’s case is likely to go to trial, the defense and prosecution say.

That is because newly elected Marshall Commonwealth’s Attorney Dennis Foust says he will refuse to offer anything but the maximum sentence for a defendant under 18 at the time of a murder — life without the possibility of parole for 25 years. And Parker’s lead defense attorney, Assistant Public Advocate Tom Griffiths, said he will likely roll the dice on a trial in hopes of getting a lesser penalty for his client.

Possible lesser verdicts could include not guilty by reason of mental defect or disease — which is rarely returned in Kentucky — or a sentence of "plain" life, in which an offender is eligible for parole in 20 years.

A year later:Marshall County High School shooting and the prosecution

Background:Gabe Parker saw school shooting as an experiment, officer says

Former Commonwealth’s Attorney Mark Blankenship, who lost his seat to Foust in the November election, said in a recent interview that the prosecution would be wiser to offer Parker a plea bargain to life, rather than risk a mistrial that could require the case to be tried again and extend the victims’ anguish for years.

"Trying a case raises a smorgasbord of issues," he said.

And he said an offender who is convicted of killing multiple students in a school shooting is unlikely to ever be granted parole, making the five-year difference in parole eligibility between the two sentences meaningless.

"If he takes life, he'll never get out," Blankenship said.

But he said the families of those who were killed and injured made clear in meetings that they don’t want a deal.

"They won't have it," he said. "They are hurt. They are damaged. In that group, there is no mercy."

The parents of Preston Cope and Bailey Holt, both 15, who were killed, did not respond to requests for comment from the Courier Journal, and nor did most of those who were injured.

“There is nothing good that can come of this,” said Jeff Dysinger, whose daughter Hannah has a 2-inch scar along her ribs from where surgeons removed a bullet that spiraled through her chest. “For this reason,” he said in a Facebook message, “we would prefer to stay silent.”

From August:As Marshall County preps for school, Parker appears in court

Other students, according to court records, were shot in the thigh, arm, knee, breast, abdomen, head and face. Some have made remarkable recoveries, like Christian Cosner, who was trampled, and his identical twin brother Mason, who was left fighting for his life after a bullet broke his jaw, cracked a vertebrae and damaged an artery leading to his brain. Both not only were able to return to the track team last spring, according to an article in the PaducahSun, but were able to compete in the state finals.

Marshall County residents seem divided on what should be done with Parker.

Lilian Dismore, a waitress at a steakhouse in the small town, said: “He is awfully young. But what he did was wrong. And he hasn’t seemed to show any remorse. How can you be rehabilitated if you show no remorse?”

Disabled pipefitter Kem Gentry, noting that Parker told police he did the shooting in part because he wanted to see what jail was like, said, “He said should get that chance — for the rest of his life."

Others were more empathetic, citing his age.

“Three kids were lost that day,” said one woman as she watching her grandchildren play last week.

Related:Marshall County football players who 'took bullets' are playing for the victims

Unable to post a $1.5 million bond, Parker is locked up at the McCracken County Juvenile Detention Center, 25 miles north of Benton, which has 48 beds and was holding 27 youths as of mid-January.

In monthly reports filed in Marshall Circuit Court, his counselor said Parker, now 16, has been well-behaved while living in the general population and has been respectful toward staff and his peers. His schooling had continued, and he has undergone counseling.

Griffiths, the assistant public advocate, declined to make him or his mother and stepfather, Mary and Justin Minyard, available for interviews to the Courier Journal.

The couple has put their house up for sale but still live in Marshall County. Mary Minyard, who was a reporter for a local online news service — and found out about her son’s involvement only when she raced to the school to cover the story — never returned to that job.

“They have been through a great deal and are trying to maintain some level of a normal life,” Griffiths said. “We have been in contact with them and they love their son very much.”

Marshall County shooting survivor:'Nobody should have to go through this'

His life 'had no purpose'

Parker, who will turn 17 in March, has pleaded not guilty. However, there appears to be little doubt about what happened in the commons at Marshall County High School on the fourth Tuesday in January last year.

Parker gave a two-hour statement to police, and a video of the shootings has been turned over to the defense, though not made public.

Blankenship, the former commonwealth’s attorney, said it will be hard for Parker to argue that he was insane at the time of the offense — which by law requires proof that he lacked “substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform to the requirements of law" because of "mental illness or intellectual disability."

According to the testimony of police who interviewed him, Parker said he had been thinking about the shooting for a week. He took his stepfather’s gun the night before and hid it in a laundry basket.

He brought a knife to school, in case he ran out of bullets and had to fend off students. And before he started shooting up the commons, he went into the band room to make sure his friends — he played trombone — wouldn’t be shot.

He also said that while he didn’t target anyone in particular, he knew the consequences of shooting into a crowd. And asked why did he did it, according to Sheriff’s Capt. Matt Hilbrecht, he said it was to break the monotony and because he was an atheist and his life — and the lives of others — had no purpose.

But Griffiths he is still investigating his client's motives — and will continue to do so at trial.

“One component of teen brain development is that they often say things that don’t make very much sense,” he said. “Often teens don’t understand what they are going through with their feelings or what they are saying.”

Opinion:I was shot twice at Marshall County High School. Now I want change

A fair and just resolution

So far the defense and prosecution have battled in court over side issues.

First Blankenship, when he was still commonwealth's attorney, threatened that if Parker's lawyers filed notice they were pursuing an insanity defense, he would prosecute Parker’s stepfather, Justin Minyard, for wanton endangerment, for failing to secure the gun.

Blankenship said if Parker was mentally ill, his parents would have known it and had a duty to keep the gun out of his hands.

Griffiths said the threat was improper. And police said Justin Minyard told them he had seen no changes in his son's behavior that suggested he was about to strike out.

Blankenship now says his stance may have cost him the election — that prosecuting gun owners didn’t sit well with voters in the rural, Western Kentucky county.

"It wasn't popular," he said.

Foust said he has no plans to prosecute either parent.

“Our focus is on the prosecution of the shooter,” he said. “Our hands are full with that.”

Related:Weeks after Marshall County shooting, survivors watch Florida tragedy unfold

In court papers, Parker's lawyers have alleged the Marshall County school district tampered with witnesses by discouraging teachers and other employees from talking with their investigators. Griffiths and his co-counsel, Angela Troutman, said a lawyer for the district even asked them to stop contacting employees “as they have been through a very difficult and trying experience and don’t wish to become involved in any matter involving the defense of Gabe Parker."

A hearing on the defense claim is set for Feb. 5, while another hearing is scheduled for March 8, after which a trial date may be set.

Griffiths declined to answer when asked what would be a fair and just resolution to what both sides see as a tragic case.

“I can say this,” he said. “Both society and the courts feel that locking up juveniles for life is not something that we as Americans should be doing. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that, and scientists who are experts in juvenile brain science have said that.”

Foust also refused to say what he thinks would be right ending.

“I am going to trust 12 jurors to make that determination,” he said.

From March:Marshall County, other 'fed up' students call for change

A previous Kentucky school shooting

Both the defense and prosecution in Commonwealth. vs. Gabe Parker say they are keenly interested in what the Kentucky Parole Board does with Michael Carneal, who in 1998 pleaded guilty to life without the possibility of parole for 25 years for the murder of three fellow students — and the wounding five others — the year before at Heath High School in West Paducah.

Now 35, Carneal is eligible for parole on Nov. 16, 2022, although his hearing would be held six months before then. The parole board could either release Carneal, order that he never be paroled, or set a date in the future to reconsider.

If Parker's case is still unresolved then, it could help both sides project how he might fare if he is convicted and eventually comes up for parole, the lawyers say.

Andrew Wolfson: 502-582-7189; awolfson@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @adwolfson. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/andreww.