Judge rejects home detention for alleged Joplin school shooter

JOPLIN, MO. (AP) -- A Joplin teenager charged with firing an assault rifle at his middle school will remain in jail while his case is being appealed.

A district judge Friday rejected a defense motion to put Thomas White on home detention while the Missouri Supreme Court decides whether he can be tried as an adult.

The 15-year-old has been in Jasper County Jail since December 2006, when he was certified to stand trial as an adult.

White's lawyers are asking the state Supreme Court to return the case to the juvenile system.

White was 13 at the time he allegedly fired the rifle inside his middle school. Prosecutors say the gun jammed after one shot into the ceiling. Nobody was injured.