Clay Shrout

Case identification

Clay Shrout

Background

Clay Shrout was a 17-year-old juvenile at the time of the May 26, 1994 murders. He was a Ryle High School junior and was described as a bright person and an honor student by many of his teachers, family friends and peers. He loaded a .380 caliber pistol.

The offence

On May 26, 1994, Clay Nathaniel Shrout shot and killed his parents and two sisters in the family's Florence home. His mother, Rebecca, 44, died first. He then shot and killed his sister Kristen, 14, who was awake. As he walked past his parents' room to kill his other sister, his father, Harvey, 43, was still alive on the bed. Shrout fired two more shots at him and Harvey died. Shrout then shot and killed Lauren, 12, in her room after she told him about a nice dream she had.

Shrout left in the Jeep but did not disappear as planned. He stopped at an Ameristop across from Ryle High to buy juice, then drove to a nearby subdivision and parked in a cul-de-sac. He called some friends, telling one he had just killed his family.

Shrout kidnapped a girl he knew at gun point. They drove to Ryle and at about 8:35 a.m. walked into his trigonometry class, where there were 22 students. He made an announcement. Teacher Carol Kanabroski told police in a written statement:

"He told me that a student had gone crazy and was holding a class hostage and to lock the door,"
"As he was saying this he pulled a gun out from his pants."

Shrout also held his class hostage. The standoff ended peacefully after he gave up. Police found that the family had been shot in the head, and investigators found six shell casings and a bullet hole in a master bedroom window.

Investigation

Boone County Detective Jerry Goins interviewed Clay Shrout. Less than two hours after he was arrested for killing his family and holding 22 classmates at gunpoint, Shrout was interviewed by Boone County Detective Jerry Goins. In the interview, Shrout described his plan and actions.

Shrout told Goins:

"I was either going to take some stuff and all the money I could find and leave ... or I was going to kill (my family) and take some stuff and disappear,"
"I didn't want to be stopped so I decided I had to kill them."

The coroner arrived at 9:41. Investigators collected numerous items from Shrout's room, including drawings, six marijuana cigarettes, and a book, The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies & Magic.

Jeff Martin, who was commander at the time of the Criminal Investigations Division of the Boone County Police Department, said:

"There's no doubt in my mind if he'd have seen his English teacher first, we'd have had multiple homicides,"

Shrout told Goins that his parents caught him with alcohol and marijuana, and that his English grade dropped from a B+ to an F in one quarter. He also said his parents grounded him for some of that and took away his phone, the keys to his truck, and some weapons he had collected, including knives, num-chucks, a sword and a BB gun. Shrout told Goins about a stun gun that had been confiscated at school, and that he had the weapons for protection.

Shrout said:

"All that I resented was when they took my weapons away,"

He said his parents had every right to take his truck and phone since they paid for them, and he said:

"they took my weapons and something happened,"

He said he argued with his mom a lot, but:

"I didn't hate her,"

He also said:

"Every time I was around her I just got real frustrated. My dad and I got along real well, though."

Shrout said he felt:

"trapped in a way, like there is no room for me anymore"

He also said:

"Like colleges. Everyone decided that I had to go to college. This was decided for me before I was born,"

He said:

"I resented them trying to make me out a special mold without asking me what I really wanted to be first."

Martin said:

"Based on what I saw that day, what he told us and why he did things, I have no doubt that if Clay Shrout gets out of prison, he will kill again,"

Arrest

Shrout was arrested at Ryle about 9 a.m. He was transported to the Boone County police station, where Detective Jerry Goins interviewed him.

Officer Pete Schierloh, about a mile away from the school, got the call at 8:46. Schierloh said:

"'Subject with a gun.' That's all they said,"
"I really had no idea what was going on."

An announcement over the school intercom was made for Superintendent Ted Wetekamp to report to the main office, but Wetekamp wasn't at the school. The announcement was the school's signal to teachers that there was an emergency and Shrout knew it. Shrout said:

"Whenever that happens, the teachers are supposed to shut and lock their doors,"
"No one is supposed to know about that, but we know about that anyway."

Assistant Principal Stephen Sorrell came to the door at 8:48 and asked Shrout to come out. Shrout said:

"I said, 'I don't want to,'"
"He said, 'We have to talk.' And I'm like, 'Why can't we talk in here?' And he's like, 'If I come in, can they leave?' I said, 'Sure.'"

When Sorrell entered and sat near Shrout, Sorrell asked for the gun. Shrout did not budge until he saw Schierloh outside the door. Schierloh reached for his gun; Shrout immediately gave his gun to Sorrell, ending the ordeal. Schierloh said:

"He just gave up. It was very much a non-event,"
"From the time I got there to the time I had him in cuffs was about 20 seconds."

Sgt. Jack Banks and Lt. Mike Jarmin were sent to the Shrout home. They arrived at 9:11 a.m., entering through an open back door. They found the family dead upstairs.

Timeline

• 5:45 a.m. May 26, 1994 — Clay Nathaniel Shrout shot and killed his parents and two sisters in the family's Florence home.
• About 8:35 a.m. — Shrout walked into his trigonometry class with the kidnapped girl and held 22 students hostage.
• 8:46 a.m. — Officer Pete Schierloh got the call about a subject with a gun.
• 8:48 a.m. — Assistant Principal Stephen Sorrell came to the door and asked Shrout to come out.
• 8:52 a.m. — Shrout gave up and gave his gun to Sorrell after seeing Schierloh outside the door.
• About 9 a.m. — Shrout was arrested; the standoff ended peacefully.
• About 9 o'clock — Martin entered the room to talk to Shrout, when Shrout told him about the murders.
• 9:11 a.m. — Sgt. Jack Banks and Lt. Mike Jarmin arrived at the Shrout home and found the family dead.
• 9:41 a.m. — The coroner arrived.

Trial

In 1994, Shrout pleaded guilty by reason of insanity and received a life sentence.

Shrout said he was angry about several issues. A written statement from one friend, made a month after the shootings, said Shrout was angry at her because he was flunking English. The friend said Shrout told him:

"I didn't tell anybody because, who would have believed me?"

The friend also said:

Shrout told him that he was going to shoot her on Thursday, May 26.

Shrout told Goins about his reasons for the killings. Shrout said:

"Two reasons why I shot my sisters,"
"The first one was I didn't want them to have to live without their parents. And also my older sister (Kristin). She had enough intelligence to pick up the phone and call the police ... and I didn't want to be stopped."

Sentencing

Shrout was sentenced Oct. 14, 1994, as a 17-year-old juvenile to life without parole for 25 years each on four counts of murder.

He was eligible for parole in 2019.

After his 18th birthday, Shrout was resentenced and committed to the custody of the Kentucky Department of Corrections as an adult Feb. 24, 1995.

Appeals

No appeal information was provided.

Outcome

Charges related to holding his trigonometry class hostage that day were dropped.

Aftermath

During his 10 years behind bars, Clay Shrout had 29 pages of disciplinary actions in four facilities where he had been incarcerated since 1995.

His possession of an L-shaped, 10-inch stainless steel bar and a plan to escape earned him a transfer in 1996 from the minimum security Kentucky Reformatory at LaGrange to the maximum security prison at Eddyville in southwestern Kentucky. In 1997, guards confiscated from him what appeared to be the makings of a knife.

The latest disciplinary reports in his file were for failure to stand for the prisoner count, most recently on Aug. 25, 2002.

Shrout did not respond to a request for an Enquirer interview.

Jeff Martin rated Shrout's chances for parole as "slim to none." Martin said:

"I can't imagine that he would be considered. If they let Clay Shrout out, Clay Shrout will kill again,"

Other details

A friend in a written statement a month after the shootings said Shrout was angry at her because he was flunking English. The friend said Shrout told him he was going to shoot her on Thursday, May 26.

Shrout told Goins he had set his alarm clock for 5 a.m. that day.

Shrout retrieved a loaded Colt .380 Mustang pistol that morning that his father kept in the Jeep, emptied the gun to figure out how it worked, then reloaded it.

Shrout told Goins:

"I said I don't care (what you do), just go on doing whatever you were doing,"
"I'm just going to sit here for a while."

He said most students were quiet, a few cried, and some talked to him.

He said:

"I hadn't stopped them from doing anything. I was just sitting there ... drinking a thing of apple juice."

Shrout let Kanabroski answer a knock at the door for a student asking her to sign a paper.

When Kanabroski mouthed to the student that someone had a gun, the student told administrators, who called police.

Shrout also said:

"I grabbed her arm and pulled out the gun. I told her to be quiet and walk toward the Jeep,"

He told Goins that he couldn't remember where roads went and some roads were the wrong roads, and he said:

"I couldn't remember if I was going to go anywhere or not."

He said he stopped at an Ameristop across from Ryle High to buy juice.

At trial-related interviews, it was stated that Shrout was not insane and would kill again if he was let out.

It was also stated that previous news reports indicated he had not sought mental health help while behind bars, but health records were not public because of federal privacy laws.