Prosecutors urge judge to keep Oxford High School shooter's guilty plea and sentence in place
Oakland County prosecutors urged Judge Kwame Rowe Tuesday to reject the Oxford High School shooter's request to withdraw his guilty plea in the deaths of four students in 2021.
Ethan Crumbley, 18, is serving a life sentence for the Oxford High School shooting. But his new appellate lawyers want to start over, arguing that he had poor mental health when he waived his right to trial and pleaded guilty to multiple charges at age 16.
The Oakland County prosecutor's office, however, said the shooter falls far short of the Michigan legal threshold to withdraw a guilty plea.
The shooter "cannot withdraw his plea merely because he has changed his mind," assistant prosecutor Joseph Shada said in a court filing.
Shada noted that the shooter signed a document acknowledging that he had discussed the guilty plea with his lawyers and that any questions were answered.
In a separate filing, prosecutors said the shooter's life sentence should stand, too. His appellate lawyers want Rowe to hear new evidence of a turbulent childhood and exposure to alcohol during pregnancy.
The shooter's "life sentence is proportionate and constitutional, even for an individual who claims to have" fetal alcohol disorder, Shada wrote in opposition.
It's not known when Rowe will make a ruling.
The shooter was 15 when he brought a gun to school and killed four students and wounded others. Earlier that day his parents were summoned to discuss violent drawings and agonizing phrases written on a math assignment. They didn't take him home, and no one checked his backpack for a gun.
The shooter's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are serving 10-year prison terms for involuntary manslaughter. They were accused of making a gun accessible at home and ignoring their son's mental health.
They were the first U.S. parents to be convicted in a school shooting committed by their child.
On Monday, the parents of the victims demanded a state-led independent investigation so that data could be collected and used to create solutions.
"We are infatuated with pointing the figure at the tool for this violence instead of thinking about why are people feeling this way. Why are people getting to the point where they want to do evil things," said Buck Myre, Tate Myre's father. "We are not thinking about the part of it, the whole prevention part of it. We are only addressing the gun stuff. We are not trying to get better systematically. That's what this investigation will expose."