Prosecutors ask judge to keep guilty plea and sentence in place for Michigan school shooter

Detroit – Prosecutors urged a judge Tuesday to deny a Michigan school shooter’s request to drop criminal charges in the 2021 deaths of four students.

Ethan Crumbley, 18, is serving a life sentence for the Oxford High School shooting. But his new appeals lawyers want to start over, arguing that he was mentally ill when he waived his right to a trial and At age 16, he pleaded guilty to multiple charges.

But the Oakland County prosecutor’s office said Crumbley fell well short of the legal threshold in Michigan to withdraw his guilty plea.

Deputy prosecutor Joseph Shada said in the court filing that Crumbley “could not withdraw his plea simply because he changed his mind.”

Shada noted that Crumbley discussed the criminal complaint with his attorneys and signed a document acknowledging that all questions had been answered.

Prosecutors said in a separate filing: Life imprisonment for Crumbley should also stand. Appellate lawyers want Judge Kwame Rowe to hear new evidence that she had a tumultuous childhood and was exposed to alcohol during pregnancy.

In dissent, Shada wrote that Crumbley’s “life sentence is proportionate and constitutional, even for a person who pleads to have a fetal alcohol disorder.”

It is unknown when Rowe will make a decision.

Crumbley was 15 when he brought a gun to school, killing four students and wounding others. Earlier that day, his parents were called in to discuss violent drawings and painful expressions written in a maths assignment. They didn’t take him home and no one checked his backpack for a gun.

James and Jennifer Crumbley Serving 10 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. They were accused of keeping a gun in the home and disregarding their son’s mental health.

They were the first US parents found guilty in school shooting committed by their children.

Meanwhile, parents of students killed in Oxford renewed their public call for a full investigation into the attack on Monday. They said it could help Michigan schools keep their students safe.