Thursday during his sentencing hearing, Audio recordings and Journal entries from Ethan Crumbley, the Michigan teenager who shot four of his high school peers to death and injured seven others in 2021, were read and played aloud. The school shooter kept his head down for the majority of Thursday's hearing.
Oakland County Judge Kwame Rowe was essentially hearing evidence, to help him decide whether Crumbley should be sentenced to prison without the chance of parole. Ethan Crumbley pled guilty, prosecutors say, and faces a total of 24 charges.
In October 2022, Crumbley pleaded guilty to 24 counts, including four counts of first-degree murder, after he killed 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana,16-year-old Tate Myre, 16-year-old Justin Shilling, and 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021.
Crumbley wrote in one journal entry, expressing the desire to drown children and throw a child–
"off a cliff."…adding "The first victim has to be a pretty girl so she can suffer just like me."… "I wish to hear the screams of the children as I shoot them,"
He also said at the beginning of a 20-minute audio recording played aloud before the Oakland County court-
"I am going to be the next school shooter,"
-Ethan Crumbley
Reportedly, the now-17-year-old also said he did not plan on committing suicide-by-cop after shooting up Oxford High School "because he wanted to witness the suffering he created," according to Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald. He also referred to himself as "evil", saying that he wanted to become famous for his crimes.
In a recording played aloud in court, in his own words, Crumbley called himself a "demon" and said he would understand if he were sent to prison for his crimes. He also talked about his belief that school, college, work and life in general are meaningless and that the U.S. education system is "brainwashing" working-class people.
Crumbley's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are also facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter after allegedly buying a gun for their son. In a social media post, that the gun was a Christmas present for their son.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, argued for life without parole for the school shooter. McDonald said Thursday-
"This is an offense unlike any other in this county or this state has ever seen, not just because of the number of children who died but the way the defendant killed them, the amount of research and planning and preparation that went into it, and the way he carried it out — the picking and choosing who would die,"
- Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald
McDonald added that video footage shows Crumbley walking up to the victims and firing at them "at point-blank range" in the middle of the school's hallways. However, he pointed to his parents' lack of attention as one of the driving factors behind his sadness in his notes read aloud in court.
In one of his journal entries, Crumbley said he had been "begging" his father for a 9 mm.
McDonald said-
"This defendant has already pled guilty to killing the four victims who died, shooting seven other victims with the intent to kill them, and terrorizing everyone else who was at Oxford High School that day. He's the only one who pulled the trigger,"… "The parents are charged with involuntary manslaughter. Their gross negligence in buying their obviously troubled son a gun, for not securing it safely, and then for not doing anything about it when they saw the defendants' drawings on the day of the shooting. They are not charged for being bad parents."
-Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald
According to the county prosecutor, in December 2021, school officials met with Ethan and his parents to discuss violent drawings he created just hours before his deadly rampage. The suspect was able to convince them during the meeting that the concerning drawings were for a "video game." His parents allegedly "flatly refused" to take their son home, McDonald said at the time.
“Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.”
-Fyodor Dostoevsky