A Camarillo man who stabbed a Walmart employee and plowed his car into a group of high school students, killing one and injuring several others, in a self-professed effort to cause mass violence was sentenced this week to 85 years to life in prison, authorities said.
Ventura County prosecutors say Austin Allen Eis, 26, carried out a series of “calculated attacks” on April 18, 2023, that began with a stabbing in Simi Valley and culminated in Eis slamming his car into the teens who were standing outside Westlake High School. Wesley Welling, 15, a freshman at the high school, died in the attack.
Eis, a former Westlake High School student, later admitted he targeted the teens out of personal frustration and a desire to commit mass violence, prosecutors said. Text messages and communications showed he held violent, extremist beliefs for years and admired mass murders, prosecutors said.
In February, Wesley’s parents watched as Eis, displaying little to no emotion, pleaded guilty to 10 felony charges — including first-degree murder, premeditated attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment by violence.
During the two-day sentencing hearing this month, Wesley’s mother, Kelly, addressed Eis directly, telling him that no nightmare is worse than knowing that his face is the last thing her son might have seen.
“You robbed me of my son and the world of a boy who would have become an amazing man,” she said in court, according to a news release. “At 15, he was already more of a man than you could ever be. You are not seen as powerful. You are seen as the coward that you are who chose to hurt children.”
Eis is considered a youthful offender and will be eligible for a parole hearing after serving 24 years, prosecutor Amber Lee previously told The Times.
Lee, a senior deputy district attorney, said prosecutors decided to accept the plea to save victims and their families from the trauma of testifying about the deadly assaults over the course of a lengthy trial.
“These families have endured unspeakable pain,” Lee said in a statement Tuesday. “This sentence brings finality without forcing them to relive their trauma in trial.”
The violent rampage spanned three locations, 30 miles and a couple of hours on the afternoon of April 18, 2023.
Eis pepper-sprayed and stabbed a Walmart greeter in Simi Valley before assaulting a second employee and attempting to drag her away, prosecutors said. He forced entry into his family’s Camarillo home, where he threatened multiple people with a knife.
He then drove 20 minutes to Thousand Oaks and slammed his Toyota Camry into a group of students standing outside Westlake High School around 3:40 p.m. Wesley was killed and a 15-year-old boy, a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl were severely injured, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
The teens described shattered bodies, sleepless nights and lasting trauma at Eis’ sentencing hearing, according to the Ventura County district attorney’s office. Several of Wesley’s friends attended court hearings wearing “Justice for Wesley” T-shirts.
Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
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