PONTIAC, Mich. – Yet another hearing was held Thursday morning to confirm the placement of the convicted Oxford High School shooter at the Oakland County Jail while he awaits sentencing for dozens of felony crimes.
Each month, Ethan Crumbley, 16, must appear in court for a hearing in which the judge decides whether to continue to lodge him at the Oakland County Jail instead of a juvenile facility. The shooter’s attorney previously requested that he be moved to a juvenile detention center because he is a minor, but an Oakland County judge denied that request last March and has since continued to keep the shooter in jail.
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Still, the judge’s decision to keep Crumbley at the Oakland County Jail must be revisited every 30 days. These hearings will continue until Crumbley is sentenced for the 24 felonies that he pleaded guilty to in October 2022, including first-degree murder and terrorism charges.
A judge on Thursday, Jan. 5, once again ordered Crumbley to remain at the Oakland County Jail.
Crumbley was previously scheduled to head to trial this month, where he intended to plead insanity, after he initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in connection with the Nov. 30, 2021, mass shooting at Oxford High School, which left four students dead and seven people injured. But the shooter no longer faces a trial, after he changed his plea to guilty on all counts.
More: Transcript: Oxford shooter admits to premeditated murder, terrorism amid prosecutor questioning
Before a sentence is handed down, the shooter will first appear for a Miller hearing on Feb. 10, in which the judge will determine if Crumbley’s age will have an impact on his sentencing at all. He was 15 years old when he carried out the fatal mass shooting in 2021, and was charged then as an adult with dozens of crimes.
Crumbley has since been convicted of the following:
- One count of terrorism causing death;
- Four counts of first-degree murder;
- Seven counts of assault with intent to murder; and
- 12 counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
It is the first time that a U.S. school shooter has been convicted of terrorism.
Last November, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office filed a motion to request the harshest sentence possible for Crumbley after he admitted to planning and executing the massacre. In that shooting, 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 17-year-old Justin Shilling were killed.
The prosecutor’s office affirmed then that is has not, and will not, offer sentence agreements or deals to the convicted shooter.
The parents of the shooter are also facing criminal charges in connection with the fatal mass shooting. In addition to allegedly neglecting their son and his emotional and mental health needs, as prosecutors argue, James and Jennifer Crumbley are also accused of buying their son the handgun used in the shooting.
Related: Parents of Oxford shooter request lower bond again, claim they did not flee from arrest