Judge rejects Michigan school shooter’s request for new sentence

PONTIAC, MI — A Michigan judge on Oct. 22 denied Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley’s request that the judge reconsider his mandatory life sentence.

Crumbley, 18, admitted to the Nov. 30, 2021, Oxford High School shooting that killed four classmates and injured seven others, including six students and a teacher, when he appeared in an Oakland County courtroom on Oct. 24, 2022.

Appellate defense attorneys representing the shooter requested that the guilty plea be withdrawn and possibly his sentence reduced.

Defense attorneys argued that Crumbley was in poor mental health when he accepted the sentence and waived his right to a trial, and said new evidence about his volatile childhood and exposure to alcohol should be taken into account in determining the sentence, according to the Associated Press.

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Because he was 15 at the time of the mass shooting, Crumbley was subject to an additional four-day pre-sentence hearing known as the Miller hearing, which is required for minors facing life in prison. Hearings were held in July and August 2023, after which Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe ruled that the teen could face a mandatory life sentence.

The Miller hearing is intended to specifically consider factors of the defendant’s youth that may have contributed to the crime.

“This was not an impulsive decision, and there was no peer pressure on him to commit the crime,” Rowe said after the Miller hearing. “He methodically walked around the school choosing who would die. He wanted to kill innocents.”

Crumbley IV. imprisoned as a level prisoner at Oaks Prison in Manistee.

His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, 46 and 48 respectively, are also serving sentences for manslaughter.

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Jennier Crumbley is being held at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti and James Crumbley is being held at Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility in Ionia. The earliest release dates are set for December 2, 2031.

Friends, family and law enforcement officials held a news conference last week asking Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to conduct an independent investigation into the shooting.

14-year-old shooting victim Hana St. Juliana’s father, Steve St. “This isn’t actually about hiding a bomb,” Juliana said. “We’re here today trying to look at the big picture and how we can fix the broken parts of the system.”

The Oxford High School students killed were: Juliana; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17.