'A dangerous young man': Prosecutor says 18-year-old who murdered father also wanted to attack schools, hospitals

HOWELL — Hayden Jagst shot his father to death the day after Father's Day 2021 as the man slept, and a Livingston County judge is weighing whether the teen will spend the rest of his life in prison or have a chance at parole decades from now.

During a Monday hearing in Livingston County Circuit Court before Judge Michael Hatty, Assistant Prosecutor Rolland Sizemore made the case that Jagst, now 19, should be sentenced as an adult to life in prison without parole. Public defender Kristina Dunne presented witnesses in support of a lesser sentence of up to 60 years that would allow parole.

In the past, defendants who were 18 were considered adults. But a recent Michigan Supreme Court decision determined that those who are 18 often are more like juveniles than adults and may be sentenced as juveniles. After a day of testimony, Hatty declined to immediately rule and set a sentencing hearing for 8:30 a.m. on April 27.

Daniel Keating testified for the defense about the lack of brain development in adolescents and said Jagst should be sentenced as a juvenile.

On June 21, 2021, Jagst, then 18, shot his father, Edward Jagst, 48, in his sleep at their home in Brighton. Afterward, he walked past his 14-year-old sister Allison, who had heard the gunshots come from the basement, and told her their father was dead, to keep watching TV, and not to call the police.

Jagst, who was arrested the same day after his mom called police, was charged with first-degree murder, two counts of felony firearm, carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent, and carrying a conceal weapon. He pleaded no contest to the concealed weapons charge, and guilty as charged to the other counts in October of 2022.

On Monday, Michigan Department of Corrections probation officer Connie Miller testified in favor of keeping him behind bars.

"(He) had an unhealthy fascination with weapons," Miller said. "He's a dangerous young man."

Jagst's mother, Sarah, however, asked Hatty to give her son a chance to get out of prison some day.

"He's a good boy," she testified. "(His sister) loves her brother."

Hayden Jagst's sister saw her brother walk out of his bedroom wearing ear protection and carrying a "long gun" on the morning of June 21, the day after Father's Day, according to prosecutors. Hayden Jagst walked down into the basement where his father was asleep. Seconds later, the girl heard gunshots.

After giving orders to his 14-year-old sister, Hayden Jagst left the home and apparently headed toward a psychiatry office in Novi where he intended "to kill as many people there as possible," prosecutors wrote in a court document.

When Jagst was arrested, police found a Ruger .22-caliber rifle and 380 rounds of ammunition.

Prosecutors argued in documents the teen's attack on his father, who was a Canton police officer, was not random, but part of a larger plan that began taking shape years before.

According to written arguments from prosecutors, in 2018, Jagst began writing of his admiration for mass murderers in a journal. He wrote about a 14-year-old Indiana boy who that year tried to attack a school, but died by his own hand after a police shootout.

"I pay my respects to this fallen soldier," Jagst wrote. "I which I knew (the boy). I that were the case we could both shoot up his school...or mine."

He also wrote, in 2019, that "If you kill yourself, no one remembers you. When you kill others, you will be forever remembered." Also in a separate 2019 journal entry, he wrote, "One thing's for sure, I better get some (explicative) news coverage after this."

Other entries include, according to prosecutors, "I only have two goals in life. One is to kill, the other is to die" and "I want revenge, revenge on humanity, the only way I can do that is mass murder."

In March 2019, he wrote that he tried to break into his father's gun safe in order to obtain weapons and ammunition to carry out an attack. He was unable to gain access, and wrote of considering taking a kitchen knife to Brighton High School, where he was a student, to kill people, especially girls.

In October 2019, he wrote of planning a trip to the Howell Dunham's store after he turned 18 to purchase a Mossberg pump action shotgun or a rifle. He also stated he would shoot his father in his sleep and then attack a school, hospital or Planned Parenthood, according to prosecutors.

In June 2021, after turning 18, Jagst wrote that he expected to have a bullet through his head soon. He said in what was planned as suicide note that he was not crazy and hadn't "snapped."

In conversations that month via the social media app Discord with someone from Pennsylvania, Jagst outlined his desire to be remembered, prosecutors said. He said he would get more news coverage if he killed his father on Father’s Day.

"Mr. Jagst, is talking about not only killing the highest number of people possible, but also inspiring future people to commit mass murders," Sizemore told Hatty Monday.

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Haden Jagst, Brighton teen who killed his dad, faces life in prison