Judge to rule if Oxford High School shooter stays in adult jail

The manager of a juvenile detention center says she would have concerns if a 15-year-old charged with killing four fellow students at Oxford High School were incarcerated at her facility.

Children’s Village manager Heather Calcaterra testified Tuesday during a hearing to decide whether the high school sophomore will be moved to the juvenile facility from an adult jail.

“This was a devastating situation and we don’t know that the defendant’s presence on our campus, in the classrooms, on the unit, how that may trigger or impact other young people,” Calcaterra said. “I would also be concerned about his safety. I do not know if he will be a target.”

“We’ve never had a situation like this … including a school shooting or a defendant who was going to use the insanity plea,” she added. “So, we don’t know what we’re going to need.”

The teen is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, terrorism and gun charges in the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School.

“This was a devastating situation and we don’t know that the defendant’s presence on our campus, in the classrooms, on the unit, how that may trigger or impact other young people.” — Heather Calcaterra, Children’s Village

In addition to the four students slain, six other students and a teacher were wounded.

Last month, the suspect’s attorneys filed a notice of an insanity defense.

He has been held at the Oakland County Jail in Pontiac since December. Currently, he is lodged alone in a cell in the jail’s clinic to keep him from seeing and hearing adult inmates.

His attorney, Paulette Loftin, has argued that her client should be moved to a juvenile facility, saying that he “should not be considered a menace to other juveniles.”

But prosecutors said Tuesday that he would pose a potential risk of harm to other juveniles if he was transferred to Children’s Village.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame Rowe said Tuesday that he could have a written ruling by early next week on whether Crumbley will remain in the jail or be transferred to Children’s Village.

His parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, are charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting. Their preliminary examinations are scheduled to resume Thursday.

Prosecutors allege they gave their son the gun as an early Christmas present. They also are accused of breaching their responsibility by refusing to remove him from school two hours before the shooting when counselors confronted them with his distressing drawings of violence.