Police say South Portland teen accused of planning school attack glorified Columbine shooters

Police say a teenager accused of planning a school shooting had weighted body armor, Nazi flags, odes to the Columbine gunmen and access to several firearms when they raided his South Portland home last year.

The Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office presented the evidence Friday during the first day of a two-day hearing scheduled to determine whether Tristan Hamilton, 17, will be tried as an adult on a charge of criminal solicitation to commit murder. The charge is a Class A crime (the highest level in Maine) and could carry a life sentence. Hamilton has pleaded not guilty.

They spent hours showing District Court Judge Peter Darvin photos from the SWAT raid and speaking to a former friend and classmate who reported Hamilton to police last spring.

It was the most substantive public hearing in his case to date but it only offered a limited look at the state’s evidence against Hamilton. Darvin barred prosecutors from presenting scores of digital evidence – more than 9,500 files – because they failed to turn the evidence over to the defense until the night before.

Read more: Portland Press-Herald