By Joseph Ax
(Reuters) – A teenager who fatally shot four classmates two years ago at his high school outside Detroit faces life in prison without parole at his sentencing on Friday, as grieving parents and siblings described the horrors he inflicted on their families.
Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 years old when he opened fire on Nov. 30, 2021, with a semi-automatic handgun his father had bought him as a Christmas gift days earlier, also wounded six other students and a teacher.
Crumbley’s parents have also been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting, in what appears to be the first U.S. case that seeks to hold parents accountable for their child’s school shooting.
At a hearing in Oakland County Circuit Court on Friday, relatives of the victims described their daily struggles to move past the shooting and urged Judge Kwame Rowe to lock Crumbley up for the rest of his life.
Craig Shilling, whose 17-year-old son, Justin, was one of the students killed, angrily told Crumbley to “rot” in prison.
“I still find myself waiting up for him to get home from work,” he said of his son. “It’s unbearable to know that he’s never going to walk through that door.”
Steve St. Juliana, whose 14-year-old daughter, Hana, was also killed, described her as a talented, athletic girl who spoke Japanese, earned straight A’s and crafted homemade jewelry.
“I will never think back fondly on her high school and college graduations,” he said tearfully. “I will never walk her down the aisle as she begins the journey of starting her own family. I am forever denied the chance to hold her or her future children in my arms.”
As the relatives spoke, Crumbley – wearing an orange jumpsuit – sat unmoving, his head and eyes cast downward, according to a live video feed from the courtroom.
In addition to Justin and Hana, the other students killed at Oxford High were Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Tate Myre, 16.
Crumbley pleaded guilty last year to two dozen counts, including one count of terrorism causing death and four counts of first-degree murder.
During a hearing in August to determine whether he should be eligible for parole, prosecutors introduced evidence showing that Crumbley made several chilling statements before the attack, including an audio recording in which he predicted he would “have so much fun” shooting his classmates.
Prosecutors have accused his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, of gross negligence for knowing their son was too young and troubled to own a gun but giving him a weapon anyway.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
