Miller hearing for Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley enters fourth week

A pre-sentencing hearing resumes this week for the teen who killed four classmates during a shooting rampage at Oxford High School in 2021.

The so-called Miller hearing is mandated for juveniles who could be sentenced to life without parole. Prosecutors argue the murders were so heinous that shooter Ethan Crumbley should die in prison — no matter how young he was at the time of the massacre.

Crumbley was 15 when he shot four Oxford students to death — most at point blank range.

Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor David Williams calls this the rare case that deserves Michigan’s harshest penalty because the teen planned his murderous attack — and his surrender — in a manner different from other mass shooters. Prosecutors say he surrendered afterwards to watch the suffering he’d inflicted.

“Not to kill themselves, not to get gunned down by the police, but with a specific plan to survive so they could see their victim suffering,” says Williams.

But defense attorney Paulette Loftin counters that Crumbley’s parents refused to get mental health care for their son despite his pleas for it and instead bought him a gun. Loftin claims that makes him different from others who may be mentally ill when they commit crimes.

“And that’s because most of them get intervention. That’s because good parents recognize when their child is circling the drain,” Loftin says.

Prosecutors have charged Crumbley’s parents James and Jennifer Crumbley with involuntary manslaughter, the first time parents of shooters have been criminally charged in the U.S. Their petition to get the case thrown out is awaiting review from the Michigan Supreme Court.