Guilty plea for boy in Connetquot plot

The older teen charged in a plot last summer that police

say was aimed at attacking students and faculty at Connetquot High School has

pleaded guilty to felony charges, court documents show.

Michael McDonough, 17, of Holbrook, pleaded guilty last week to

first-degree reckless endangerment and fourth-degree conspiracy. He was

originally charged with misdemeanor conspiracy charges.

McDonough's attorney, Edward Wolfe, of Hauppauge, could not be reached for

comment. He will be seeking youthful offender status from the court,

prosecutors said.

"Mr. McDonough accepted responsibility for his actions and pleaded guilty

before the court," said Jeremy Scileppi, chief of major crimes for the Suffolk

district attorney's office.

Scileppi said McDonough has not been promised a sentence. State Supreme

Court Justice Robert W. Doyle will decide the teen's sentence May 27 after

evaluating the findings of a probation department pre-sentence investigation.

McDonough, a student at Sachem High School North, was charged along with a

15-year-old co-defendant, whom Newsday is not naming because he is a minor, in

the July 2007 plot. It was uncovered when the younger teen's notebook, which

included plans for the attack, was found in the parking lot of a Bohemia

McDonald's where the defendants worked.

Police say the two teens also tried to buy weapons and explosives online

and made a video describing the attack, which they had intended to carry out on

April 20 of this year - the ninth anniversary of the Columbine High School

shootings.

The younger teen pleaded guilty earlier to second-degree attempted

conspiracy and was sentenced to a year in a juvenile treatment facility.

Scileppi said McDonough "cooperated fully" with investigators, including by

turning over his computer and other items of forensic evidence.