Mass. teen denies high school stabbing on jail tapes; lawyers seek to suppress recordings

On tapes, Mass. teen denies high school stabbing

WOBURN, Mass. — In a recorded jailhouse conversation, a teenager charged with fatally stabbing another student at a suburban high school told a friend he was being “persecuted” because he stayed behind to help the victim.

John Odgren’s lawyers say he was legally insane when he randomly chose a victim and stabbed him repeatedly in a bathroom at Lincoln-Sudbury High School. Fifteen-year-old James Alenson died in the 2007 attack.

Prosecutors say recorded jailhouse conversations show a lucid boy who was not mentally ill and want the jury at his upcoming trial to hear them.

During a pretrial hearing Monday, portions of the tapes were played. Odgren tells a friend to “just tell them I didn’t do it, that’s the truth.” Odgren told another friend he was arrested “for a murder I didn’t commit.”