Suspect wanted ‘to be remembered through all of history’ for shooting up Michigan school
PONTIAC, Mich. — Months before he fatally shot four students at his high school and injured several others, Ethan Crumbley wrote that he wanted “to shoot up the school” and “be remembered through all of history,” according to testimony Thursday to determine if he should be sentenced to prison without the chance of parole.
Lt. Timothy Willis with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office read multiple entries Crumbley wrote in a journal before the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting at Oxford High School, many about shooting fellow classmates and “pretty girls.”
“The first victim has to be a pretty girl with a future so she can suffer just like me,” he wrote.
Crumbley entered Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe’s courtroom at 9:05 a.m. in shackles and flanked by multiple deputies. Several families members began to weep as he walked in.
Five rows of seating inside the courtroom were full with parents, families and friends of the four victims, including Steve and Reina St. Juliana, Buck and Sheri Myre, Meghan and Chad Gregory and others who have children in the district.
In her opening statement, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said the attack on Oxford High School is unlike any other the nation has ever seen.
“The way he carried it out the picking and choosing of who would die, the way he walks up to them and fires at them at point blank range, the way he researched and knew Michigan doesn’t have a death penalty,” McDonald said. “He stayed alive (because) he wanted to witness the suffering he was creating.”
But defense attorney Paulette Loftin said the judge must consider mitigating factors when deciding whether the shooter should spend the rest of his life in prison.
“Fifteen-year-old Ethan Crumbley is not one of those rare juveniles who … doesn’t have the ability to be rehabilitated,” she said.
A dozen Sheriff’s deputies were positioned around the courtroom while attorneys and staff waited for the hearing to begin.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald’s office is seeking a sentence of life without parole for shooter Ethan Crumbley after he pleaded guilty in October to 24 felonies, including terrorism causing death and four counts of first-degree murder. They plan to call up to 12 unidentified Oxford students and a former teacher who was injured in the shooting to testify, as well as showing potentially graphic photos of the shooting’s aftermath.
The shooter’s attorney Paulette Loftin plans to rebut the prosecution’s arguments by presenting testimony from experts, text messages from the teen and a video of him falling at work and hitting his head to try to persuade the judge against imprisoning him for life for his role in the November 2021 mass shooting.
Because shooter Ethan Crumbley was 15 at the time of the crime but is charged as an adult, he has to have a Miller hearing so Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe can determine if it would be appropriate to sentence him to life without parole in prison.
A Miller hearing is a constitutional requirement for juveniles charged as adults with crimes that could land them in prison for life without the chance of parole. During the hearing, the judge will determine whether it is constitutional and appropriate to sentence the shooter to life in prison without parole.
During the Miller hearing, the teen’s attorneys will present mitigating factors against life in prison, including his age, his family and home environment, the circumstances of the crime, factors associated with his youth and the possibility of rehabilitation.
If Rowe decides life without parole is not appropriate for Ethan, he must sentence him to a number of years in prison. Life with parole is not an option for murder cases under Michigan law.
Rowe’s sentence must be a minimum of 25 to 40 years and a maximum of at least 60 years. So if the judge decides the shooter’s crime does not warrant life without parole, the absolute minimum Ethan would serve in prison before being allowed to ask the parole board for release is 25 years.
Rowe will not make an immediate decision at the hearing’s end. He instead will set two dates — one to announce his decision and one for the sentencing.
The shooter pleaded guilty in October to terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and 12 counts of felony firearm. He killed Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.
His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, are also charged in connection with the shooting. Both face four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The case is pending in the Michigan Supreme Court after the Crumbley’s attorneys appealed a district court judge’s decision to bind the parents over for trial in Oakland County Circuit Court.