Seventeen-year-old Ethan Crumbley, who, on November 30, 2021, loaded a gun into his backpack, went to Michigan’s Oxford High School, and shot dead four of his fellow students, addressed an Oakland County courtroom on Friday before being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Following testimony from witnesses and victims, Crumbley, who was just 15 when he killed 16-year-old Tate Myre, 16-year-old Justin Shilling, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, made some startling admissions.
“I am a really bad person,” the teen said. “I have done some terrible things that no one should ever do. I have lied and I’m not trustworthy. I hurt many people.”
As BizPac Review previously reported, in addition to killing four, Crumbley injured seven people, including a teacher.
A year later, in October of 2022, he pleaded guilty to all the charges against him — including terrorism and first-degree murder — and reportedly withdrew his intent to pursue an insanity defense.
In June, as the court was preparing for a July hearing to determine if a life sentence without a parole possibility — a sentence typically reserved for adult offenders — was appropriate, Crumbley began displaying what prosecutors described as “sporadic, disturbing behavior” in jail.
MI school shooter Ethan Crumbley exhibits ‘sporadic, disturbing behavior’ ahead of July sentencing https://t.co/k57YcYGTt6 pic.twitter.com/c4bWOlj4tR
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) June 29, 2023
“Recently, Defendant has started exhibiting sporadic, disturbing behavior,” the filing read. “This behavior has been documented via report and bodyworn cameras from jail personnel responding to various incidents. It is not readily apparent what the impetus for or cause is of this behavior.”
Nevertheless, the July 27th Miller hearing went on as planned.
A notebook in which Crumbley wrote that he was “going to spend the rest of my life in prison rotting like a tomato” was presented as evidence, Fox News Digital reports.
In September, it was agreed that Crumbley could, indeed, face such a sentence.
“Whatever sentence it is, I do plan to be better than I am,” the teen, clad in an orange jumpsuit, told the court on Friday. “I don’t know if you believe that, but records in 15, 20, 25 years can show that I will change, because, it may not show it now with only two years of records, but I am trying.”
(Video: YouTube)
“All I want is for the people I heard to just have a final sense of culpability that just has somewhat been served in any faith capacity that they can recognize it with,” Crumbley told Judge Kwame Rowe. “Any sentence that they asked for, I ask that you do impose it on me because I want them to be happy and I want them to feel secure and safe and I do not want them to worry another day.”
“So, I really am sorry, for what I’ve done, for what I’ve taken from them,” he continued. “I cannot give it back but I can try my best in the future to help other people and that is what I will do.”
Judge Rowe called Crumbley’s shooting “torture” and an “execution” and imposed the harshest sentence possible: life in prison, no possibility of parole.
“It is the first criminal case in the country when a defendant has been charged with and convicted of terrorism resulting from a mass shooting,” Fox News Digital notes.
In death, 16-year-old Justin Shillin, an organ donor, saved five lives after Crumbley shot him, Justin’s father, Craig Shilling, told the young killer.
“As long as there are good people in the world …” Craig told Crubley, “evil will never triumph.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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