School Shooter Doesn't Bother Putting Up Legal Defense, Pleads Guilty to All 24 Counts
The Michigan teenager accused of killing four classmates and wounding several others pleaded guilty on Monday to all of the charges against him.
Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the Nov. 30 attack at Oxford High School, faced 24 charges including terrorism and murder, according to ABC.
David Williams, chief assistant prosecutor in Oakland County, said prior to the hearing there were “no plea deals, no reductions and no agreements regarding sentencing,” ABC reported.
Crumbley’s attorneys, who at one time said they might pursue an insanity defense, said they have dropped that strategy, according to Mlive.
Crumbley said little other than responding to questions on Monday, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“Is it your own choice to plead guilty?” Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe asked.
“Yes sir,” Crumbley said, admitting that he shot his classmates on purpose.
“Is it true that you intended to cause panic and fear?” he was asked.
“Yes,” Crumbley said.
He faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Crumbley’s parents, who face involuntary manslaughter charges for buying the gun Crumbley used, have said the gun was locked away.
On Monday, Crumbley said “[i]t was not locked.”
During the hearing, Crumbley said he asked his father to buy the gun and gave him his own money to do so, the Free Press reported.
Ethan Crumbley entered courtroom. pic.twitter.com/mE5gaecmoZ
— Elisha Anderson (@elishaanderson) October 24, 2022
“He’s taking accountability for his actions,” Paulette Loftin, Crumbley’s attorney, said.
“We have to all remember he is a 16-year-old boy, so a very scary situation today to be in front of a number of cameras, hear the clicking, to be appearing in front of a judge,” Loftin said.
“It is an extremely emotional day. I don’t think there are any words that could make [the victims’ families] feel better.”
#BREAKING: Ethan Crumbley, the accused Michigan school shooter, has pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including one count of terrorism and four counts of first-degree murder.
Crumbley was charged as an adult in last year’s #Oxford High School shooting.https://t.co/Z656y37DR1
— Court TV (@CourtTV) October 24, 2022
According to the Free Press, Crumbley had written in his journal that, “I will cause the biggest school shooting in Michigan’s history. I have fully mentally lost it.”
On the day before the shooting, Crumbley wrote about his plans in his journal.
“First off, I got my gun. It’s an SP2022 SIG Sauer 9mm. Second, the shooting is tomorrow, I have access to the gun and ammo,” Crumbley wrote, adding, “[T]he first victim has to be a pretty girl with a future so she can suffer like me.”
According to the New York Post, the dead were identified as two girls — Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Hana St. Juliana, 14 — and two boys — Tate Myre, 16, and Justin Shilling, 17.
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