PONTIAC, Mich. – During a recurring monthly hearing Friday, a judge once again ordered the Oxford High School shooter to remain lodged at the Oakland County Jail while he awaits sentencing.
The now-16-year-old shooter must appear in court each month for a placement hearing, in which the judge decides whether to continue to lodge him at the Oakland County Jail instead of a juvenile facility. Last year, the shooter’s attorney requested he be moved to a juvenile facility given his age. An Oakland County judge denied that request in March 2022, and has since continued to keep the shooter in jail.
Still, the judge’s decision to keep the shooter at the Oakland County Jail must be revisited every 30 days. These hearings will continue until the shooter is sentenced for the 24 felonies that he pleaded guilty to in October 2022, including first-degree murder and terrorism.
This month’s placement hearing took place the morning of Friday, May 12. These hearings are often brief and uneventful. The judge once again ordered the shooter to remain lodged in jail for the time being.
At the end of these monthly hearings, the judge has been working with prosecutors and defense to schedule a Miller hearing -- which must take place before a sentencing hearing can, due to the shooter’s age and convictions. During the April hearing, the judge had tentatively scheduled a Miller hearing for July 27, when the judge will determine if the shooter’s age will have an impact on his sentencing.
The Miller hearing was initially scheduled for February, and then moved to June, but the dates did not work for the parties involved.
Once a Miller hearing is held, an official sentencing hearing can be scheduled for the Oxford shooter. He faces a life sentence in prison without parole after being convicted of 24 felonies.
Read more ---> When will the Oxford High School shooter be sentenced?
The shooter was previously scheduled to stand trial in January, where he intended to plead insanity after initially pleading not guilty to the charges against him. He has since pleaded guilty to all 24 felony counts against him in connection with the Nov. 30, 2021, mass shooting at Oxford High School, which left four students dead and seven people injured.
Though the shooter was 15 years old when he murdered students and injured others, he was charged as an adult. He 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 the shooter 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.
After months of the shooter’s parents attempting to get their case thrown out, the Michigan Court of Appeals recently upheld a ruling ordering them to stand trial on the four involuntary manslaughter charges they each face. In that decision, appellate judges shared harrowing new details from text messages between the shooter and his parents, and the shooter and his friend.