Ethan Crumbley sentenced to life in Oxford High School shooting: Updates from court

Just over two years since opening fire in Oxford High School, killing four students and injuring seven other people at the school, Ethan Crumbley learned his sentence Friday in an Oakland County courtroom: Life in prison, without the possibility of parole.

Survivors and victims' loved ones were led into the courtroom shortly after 8:30 a.m. in preparation for a day dominated by victim impact statements, followed by Oakland County  Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe announcing Crumbley's sentence. Impact statements concluded shortly after 2:30 p.m., with Rowe issuing the life sentence after that.

The four students who died were Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17.

The Free Press monitored the hearing via livestream and from the courtroom. You can watch the hearing and read the updates below.

Judge's comments before sentencing

Before handing down his sentence, Rowe said he could not "begin to imagine the fear" or "even fathom" the pain the parents felt in waiting at a Meijer's parking lot to learn the fate of their children.

"I hope this sentence allows you to close one chapter," he said, stressing it's in the best interest of justice for Crumbley to serve life without parole. He noted that the killer himself did not ask for a term of years, even though his lawyers did.

"He could have changed his mind," the judge said, noting, "The defendant shot Justin at point-blank range. He shot another girl at close range."

"That's an execution," the judge said, noting Crumbley planned this all out and wanted to go down in history as the biggest school shooter in Michigan history.

The killer's "actions clearly created a new normal," the judge said. "He wanted to see the impact of his own crime, which is why he didn't take his own life. He chose not to die on that day because he wanted the notoriety. The terror that he caused in the state of Michigan and in Oxford is a true act of terrorism."

"He has an obsession with violence. This involved extensive planning, extensive research and he executed on every last one of the things he planned," the judge said, stressing that mental illness did not interfere with his ability to carry out his crimes.

"This started with him asking for a better gun to carry out the school shooting," the judge said.

After the sentencing, former Oxford High students walked out solemnly, some in tears. Many were quiet as they filed out of the courtroom and overflow room at the conclusion of a deeply emotional hearing.

Killer speaks in court

For the first time, Crumbley spoke about his crimes and apologized.

"We are all here because of me today, what I did. My actions were because of what I chose to do. I could not stop myself. ... my parents did not know what I planned to do, they are not at fault.

"I have lied, I've hurt many people, and that's what I've done. That's not who I plan on to be. I do plan to be better, I will change. I am trying, and all I want is for the people I hurt to have a final sense of culpability that justice has been served.

"I want them to be happy, I want them to be secure. I really am sorry, I cannot give it back, but I can try my best to help other people, and that is what I want to do."

Prosecutor presses for life without parole

In pushing for the harshest punishment possible, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald argued Crumbley's crimes triggered a tsunami of trauma for scores of students, parents and an entire community.

All of it could have been avoided, she said, but Crumbley chose to keep his plan a secret.

"He could have disclosed that he had a gun and was planning to shoot up his school, but he did not," McDonald said.

"Today was about victims. We heard their voices," the prosecutor said.

But the trauma was far more severe than what was heard in court, she said, noting the parents suffered far more than what they discussed Friday.

Madisyn Baldwin's father didn't talk about picking out a casket, and how he hoped that his daughter wasn't in fear when she was shot.

How another victim's father didn't talk about how he sat in silence after first meeting with prosecutors, and could barely utter a word.

Justin Shilling's mom didn't talk about what it felt like when just a few months ago, she was finally given the sweatshirt her son was wearing on the day of the shooting, still bloodstained.

Defense: 'His life is salvageable'

Defense lawyers, meanwhile, urged the judge to spare Crumbley a life forever behind bars, maintaining he is too young to be denied a chance to turn his life around.

Perhaps most notably, the defense argued, Crumbley was on the "precifice" of a crisis and spiraling out of control, with no one to help him.

"Ethan has never bragged about what he did," his lawyer, Paulette Michel Loften told the judge, stressing he has changed from the "broken, sad" kid she first met two years ago.

"He is a different person, and he is remorseful," Loftin said. "He sees the wrong in his actions. He sees hope for the first time."

A guardian ad litem assigned to Crumbley echoed similar concerns.

"He can be rehabilitated. He is redeemable," said Deborah McKelvy, choking up at times. "The Ethan I met two years ago is not the Ethan sitting here today at sentencing. That's not to say he doesn't have a ways to go, because he does. But he's demonstrated that he can change himself for the better."

She stressed: "His life is salvageable."

'I try to lay down at night and escape ... but I can't'

Olivia McMillan said she feared school shootings since she was 13, when the Parkland shooting in Florida rattled her sense of security in 2018.

Then tragedy struck at her school in 2021, robbing her of her best friend, Justin Shilling, the boy she met in middle school, the one with the big smile, round cheeks and crooked teeth.

"He was such a light to be around," she told the judge.

When the shooting first broke out, she thought it was a senior prank, someone banging on lockers. But her teacher locked the door in the classroom. A shooting was confirmed. And so she sent a group chat to her closest friends.

Justin was in that group chat.

"Are you OK?" she recalled asking him. "The response we got still makes me sick to my stomach."

Justin, she would learn, was in the bathroom with the shooter. He responded to his friends: "I love you guys."

"I didn’t think he was dead. I believed for another 20 hours that he would be OK, that I would go to the hospital and visit him."

Tragically, her good friend lost his life.  And the reality would hit it that Justin would no longer tease her, go to prom with his friends, walk the stage and "brag about all his awards," she said.

"I dream of what could have been," she said. "I try to lay down at night and escape ... but I can't."

'Look at me,' survivor demands of killer

A 16-year-old junior at Oxford High — Rowe didn't require her name to be announced because she is a minor —started her statement by telling the shooter: “Today I want you to look at me.”

She recalled people being shot outside of the classroom where she was hiding and said that, thinking about it, she can feel the adrenaline in her veins.

The girl said she was new to Oxford at the time and in some classes she sat next to Hana St. Juliana, whom she said was talkative and friendly.

“She was set to do great things in this world,” she said.

She told the killer she will never have forgiveness for him and whatever punishment he receives won’t be enough. After today, she said she will live her life and he will go behind bars and she will never have to see his face again.

“You are a waste of space. … You’re not special,” she said.

The student said: “I’m going to ask you one more time to please look at me.”

The shooter glanced up briefly at the end of her comments.

Less than life without parole 'would be a slap in the face'

Madisyn's best friend also implored the judge to lock the shooter up forever, telling Rowe how the two parted ways in a hallway while going to their separate classes, how gunshots then rang out and how she learned from another student's Snapchat story that Madisyn died that day.

However, the reality of losing her best friend did not kick in until weeks later, when students returned to school for the first time.

"I sat in our ceramics class. I waited for her to come sit at her seat next to me, and I waited and waited, and I finally realized she was never coming," Madeline Johnson said through tears.

She then talked about blame — how she blamed herself for not walking her friend to class that day, how she blames the courtyard doors for being locked and causing the two friends to take another route to classes that day.

But the blame, she said, lies with only one person.

"It lies with that monster sitting over there who can't even look at me," Madeline said.

Anything less, she said, "would be a slap in the face."

'The most terrifying moment of my life'

Keegan Gregory, who hid in a bathroom with Justin Shilling on the day of the shooting and managed to escape, told the judge about the impact the tragedy has had on his life, and the survivor's guilt he lives with.

He and Justin Shilling were stuck in the bathroom with Crumbley. He was there when Shilling was fatally shot, and was texting his family the horrific details.

“It was and always will be the most terrifying moment of my life,” he said, being cornered in the bathroom with no option but to run to save his life.

Keegan said he knows his life could have been taken as well that day, and fear overwhelmed him, as did grief for the families of victims.

“I almost feel guilty about being alive knowing that Justin’s family is in grief,” he said.

Keegan said no one can understand what they went through that day. Nighttime was sleepless, he felt there was no safe place to escape. He said it’s scary to know there can be someone else in this world who can hurt so many.

“My life is now full of what ifs,” Keegan said. “He robbed me and the Oxford community of so many things.”

He said he hopes that one day Crumbley realizes how unnecessary it was.

“I hope this is something that will grow with me and strength me, but no longer define me,” he said.

Wounded student: 'I thought I was dying'

Kylie Ossege was a senior at Oxford High School on the day of the shooting. She remembers falling to the ground and the hallway growing silent.

“The silence was deafening,” she said.

She said she was lying on her side and realized she had been shot.

“I thought I was going to die,” Ossege said. “As I laid on the floor, I attempted to get up, but my legs weren’t moving.”

She said she hit her legs to regain feeling, but it didn’t work. She tried to do a push-up to drag her body to a safe place to get help, but with the weight of her jacket and backpack, she was unable to do so.

“It was so painful,” she said.

Ossege said she let herself drop back down to the floor where she felt "warmth on my face from blood soaking into the carpet." She reached her hand over her head and she realized it was Hana St. Juliana.

“I could hear her groaning beside me,” she said, adding she tried to reassure Hana that someone would come help them, telling her: “please stay with me.”

A SWAT team member ran past, did a double-take and said someone will come to help. “Hana and I were left in utter loneliness. I thought I was dying.”

Ossege said she repeated her mother’s phone number and created math problems in her head and solved them to make sure she wasn’t dying. She said she lay there for 15 minutes.

“Fifteen minutes of hearing Hana St. Juliana’s last sounds,” she said.

Ossege, who is now a student at Michigan State University, said the bullet entered through her right clavicle and exited through left side of her back. It broke ribs and grazed her spine. She has continued to suffer physical effects of her injuries and unable to do the things that she loved.

But she said nothing will stop her from living her life to the fullest and is thankful she is still here. She said she will continue to spread love, joy and positivity and to advocate for those who have experienced something similar.

“I will continue and live on for those that we’ve lost,” Ossege said.

Then pointing her finger at the shooter, she said: "No one is ever going to stop me from living my life to the fullest."

'I couldn't sleep for the longest time'

Aidan Watson, an 11^th grader at Oxford, talked about escaping the school despite being shot in the leg.

"I remember the pain that night — it was a pain I would keep on having," he said. "I didn't realize that I would never be able to run again without having pain."

He also lives in fear.

Fireworks set him off. A man in a hoodie at an event he once attended triggered panic and tears.

"I couldn't sleep for the longest time," he said, noting he can only sleep with music now.

He urged the judge to lock up the shooter forever.

"He should never see the light of human day again," he said. "He is a horrible human being."

Wounded teacher sees shooter as 'monster'

“It is easier for me to see you as a monster,” said Molly Darnell, an educator at the school who was shot.

She said in her heart she still carries love, joy and hope.

Darnell said there is simply too much good in the world for the shooter's actions to destroy that.

“I am the writer of my own story,” she said. “You may not be glancing my way today, but I know you can hear me.”

She then reminded Crumbley that he intended to leave her husband a widower, and her children motherless.

Crumbley has kept his head down throughout the hearing so far.

Parents, siblings of children killed are first to speak

The first victim impact statement was read by Nicole Beausoleil, mother of 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, who was shot and killed as she crouched by her locker.

Her mother told in gut-wrenching detail how she learned that day in a manager's office at Meijer that her daughter was killed, how she refused to believe the tragic news, how she had to wait to see her child and the stabbing pain she felt when she had to identify her the next day at the coroner's office.

“Madisyn Baldwin, a name that most didn’t know prior to this horrific act, but now a name that everyone has come to love,” she said.

“When the world gets dark, she’s the stars," said Beausoleil, who struggled at times to maintain her composure before the judge, with a photo of her daughter in a brimmed hat propped up on the prosecution’s table.

In recalling the day her daughter was killed, Beausoleil noted that by the time she received word the school had been attacked, her daughter had already been gone for more than an hour. Beausoleil said that as she paced the nearby Meijer, where students and families were meeting after the shooting, she kept asking where her daughter was, but all she received were blank stares.

Then someone asked for the family of Madisyn Baldwin to follow them and she was told her daughter was killed.

Beausoleil said they were suffocating in disbelief.

“Tears soaked the cold floor I laid on,” she said, adding that she had to tell Madisyn’s then-11-year-old sister that she was gone.

She described seeing her daughter’s body lying on a gurney, blood smeared in her hair. She was not allowed to touch her daughter or hold her hand. She was dragged away, screaming.

“That was not my daughter, Madisyn was far from lifeless," Beausoleil said.

Crumbley, in an orange jumpsuit, stared downward at the table as Beausoleil spoke.

“I hope the screams keep you at night and they cause real hallucinations,” she said to Crumbley. “Those four walls become your home suffocating in guilt.”

She said she was happy Crumbley chose not to take his own life: “I truly feel sorry for you that you thought this would be a better life choice.”

Tate Myre's father

Buck Myre, whose son Tate was killed in the massacre, spoke of forgiveness.

“We’re all cried out …We’re the prisoner, not you,” he said to the teen killer.

"We need  to find a way to find forgiveness — forgiveness to you, forgiveness to your parents, forgiveness to the school, what other choice do we have?

“Believe me, we will never forget about you — ever. What you stole from us is not replaceable. But what we will not let you take from us is a life of normalcy.”

Myre said that on Nov. 30, 2021, he was working from home and his wife was working in Lake Orion. He heard sirens getting louder. He got a call from his wife and she told him about what was going on at Oxford High. Myre said he finished a conference call, made his way to the school and texted his son a couple of times, with no response.

He and his wife got to the Meijer and started looking for their son. They were summoned to the manager’s office and got the news “that Tate wasn’t with us anymore.”

“The thing that stands out to me is what my wife said. She put her head in her hands and she said, ‘Not my baby boy.’”

He said that for the past two years his family has been navigating through complete hell. He said they wear the pain like a heavy coat.

“Every hour is the darkest time of the day,” he said.

Myre said as the family today navigates “treacherous waters,” they try to honor their son.

“Today is a day where the tides change,” Myre said.

Crumbley’s eyes were downcast during the statement.

Justin Shilling's parents

The third impact statement came from Craig Shilling, whose son Justin was shot and killed in a bathroom stall —Crumbley's final victim before he surrendered to police.

"On that day, my life was torn apart," Schilling told the judge. "Grief had consumed me ... the events that took place that day have rocked three generations of our family."

Birthdays and holidays don't carry the special feelings they used to, he said.

"There are no words that can actually describe the pain ... anxiety, stress ... scattered thoughts," he said. "This unfair reality is something I will never get over.

"I still find myself waiting up for him ... it's unbearable to know that he's never going to walk through that door."

Shilling implored the judge to lock the shooter up forever, never mentioning his name.

"I'm going to ask you to lock this son of a bitch up for the rest of his pathetic life.

"My son doesn't get a second chance, and neither should he."

He expressed his anger, saying, "Ethan Crumbley should be remembered as the biggest coward in Michigan history."

Justin's mother then asked the judge to give Crumbley life without the possibility of parole.

"No mother should have to put her child in the ground," said Jill Soave, Justin's mother, who fought through tears to explain her anger, pain and rage at her family's loss.

How Justin's brothers have to grow up without him, how Justin will never be a father.

She then directed her statement to the killer:

"You may have caused the pain and terror you intended to, but you have not destroyed us ... I don't focus on hating you, but I also don't feel a drop of pity to you ... you're nothing to me ... while you rot in jail, we will push on ... and we will spread love and kindness in honor of our angels."

She added: "You're not famous ... the media will forget about you. I know you're miserable, and it's only going to get worse."

"If you were that lonely," she concluded, " Justin would have been your friend, if only you had asked him."

Hana St. Juliana's family

Reina St. Juliana, Hana St. Juliana’s sister, read a statement from their mom, who said her life has been in a constant state of sadness since her daughter's death.

The mother called Hana the perfect version of her, a caring child who came up with all the Christmas presents for everyone because she knew what everyone in the family liked. Her mom wrote that when she sees a pair of sisters, mothers with their daughters or young people Hana’s age having fun, sadness consumes her.

“I am sad in the spring, in the summer, in the fall, in the winter,” her mom.

Reina St. Juliana expressed her pain in moving forward without her sister.

She thought they would speak at each other’s weddings.

“Instead of speaking at her wedding, I spoke at her funeral,” Reina said.

And instead of fishtailing her hair for homecoming, she said, "I curled her hair in a casket."

She said there are no words to capture her sister’s wit, kindness and loyalty. Her love was unconditional and she does not want to live without Hana. “She truly brought out the best in me,” Reina said.

“To know Hana is the greatest gift in life.”

She said she looks for her sister in everyone she meets.

“Me without Hana is someone I cannot even recognize.”

Steve St. Juliana said the defendant envisioned, researched and executed his plot to murder students. He chose his actions to make himself feel better, he said.

“He was not acting in self-defense. He did not make a mistake nor act accidentally,” Steve St. Juliana said.

“There can be no forgiveness,” he said. “There can be no rehabilitation.”

Steve St. Juliana said there is nothing he could do to make up for the lives he has taken. Defendant has said one of his goals was to see the suffering of the families of those he killed. Steve St. Juliana said he ahs realized that unless you have experienced the loss of a child yourself there is no way to understand the devastation that loss causes.

“Hana’s murder has destroyed a large portion of my very soul. I’m a shell of the person I used to be,” Steve St. Juliana said. He said every day is a battle, he struggles to get out of bed. Simple everyday sights and actions bring pain because he thinks what it should have been like with Hana there with them.

Steve St. Juliana said he mourns the memories that will never be.

“I am forever denied the chance to hold her or her future children in my arms,” he said of his daughter.

He said his daughter was a beautiful and thoughtful person. She was curious and talented, continually trying new things. She cooked her own recipes, played sports and crafted jewelry. She hoped to join her older sister on the lacrosse team in the spring. She was fluent in Japanese and conquered what she set her mind to doing.

Steve St. Juliana said his daughter kept a list of careers she was interested in, including nurse, physician, immunologist and FBI agent.

“My family and the families of all the victims are depending on you to impose a sentence that is commensurate to this heinous crime,” Steve St. Juliana told Judge Rowe.

How we got here: Oxford High School shooting case

Crumbley, who was 15 when he carried out the deadly massacre on Nov. 30, 2021, pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism charges last year, admitting he planned and carried out the shooting, and meant to cause panic and fear in the school that day.

According to courtroom testimony, Crumbley planned and obsessed about the school shooting in his journal, and wrote that he wanted to survive the rampage so he could witness the pain and suffering.

In September, Rowe determined that Crumbley is eligible for a sentence of life without parole following a lengthy and emotional Miller hearing, a mandatory proceeding that helps judges decide whether juveniles should spend the rest of their lives in prison.

What about James and Jennifer Crumbley?

James and Jennifer Crumbley, meantime, continue to maintain their innocence in the unprecedented case as the first parents in America charged in a mass school shooting. They will face separate trials in January on involuntary manslaughter charges. They are accused of ignoring their son's mental health troubles and buying him a gun instead of getting him help — the same gun he used in the November 2021 massacre.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ethan Crumbley sentenced to life: Updates from court