Prosecution rests in Oxford shooter hearing; defense witnesses say he heard voices

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An Oxford High School student who killed four classmates and injured seven others and a teacher showed emotion for the first time during a hearing Friday to determine if he'll be sentenced to life without parole in prison as his former vice principal testified about how he killed fellow student Tate Myre.

Ethan Crumbley pursed his lips as tears began dripping down his face when Oxford High School Assistant Principal Kristy Gibson-Marshall sobbed during her testimony about her attempts to save Tate, who she had known since he was 3.

She took his pulse and checked his vitals before trying to get his backpack off so she could give him lifesaving breaths, but Tate was already blue.

"It was crushing," Gibson-Marshall said through tears. "I had to help him. I just needed to save him. For his mom."

Gibson-Marshall was the only prosecution witness who called Ethan by his first name instead of saying "the defendant" or "the shooter." She was also the last witness called by the prosecution Friday as it rested its case on whether the teenage shooter, now 17, should receive a life sentence without parole.

Her account followed vivid and emotional testimony from students who witnessed the Nov. 30, 2021, attack, including Heidi Allen, who rendered possibly lifesaving aid to a wounded classmate, and Keegan Gregory, who was in the bathroom with Justin Shilling when he was shot and killed.

The shooter's defense team began its case Friday, presenting evidence that he struggled with depression and paranoid thoughts and heard voices in his head but did not receive the help he said he needed from his parents. The defense will try to argue that mitigating factors, such as the shooter's age, his family and home environment, the circumstances of the crime and the possibility of rehabilitation, make a life without parole sentence disproportionate.

His attorney, Paulette Loftin, questioned Oakland County Sheriff's Edward Wagrowski about several Google searches the teen did in the weeks and months before the shooting, asking questions about depression, anxiety and being a sociopath. She also detailed text messages he sent a friend, detailing worries about seeing things and hearing things, along with struggles with his parents.

The teen was worried about his mental state before the shooting but said his parents made him feel like "I'm the problem."

His mom "thinks the reason I'm so mad and sad all the time is because I take drugs and she doesn’t worry about my mental health," he texted to his friend in March 2021. "They make me feel like I'm the problem."

Loftin also asked Friday to exclude the Thursday testimony of Molly Darnell, a teacher who was shot and injured in the attack.

Amy Hopp, the shooter's attorney, said Darnell’s testimony was "clearly inappropriate for a Miller hearing," referencing a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama, when the high court ruled that mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional for juveniles who committed homicides.

"We are not here at this point for sentencing," Hopp said. "If the testimony is not tailored to those five factors, it is … inadmissible."

But Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said part of the Miller hearing is the proportionality of the crime. She argued the way the shooter committed the crime and the testimony of the victims, whom he said he wanted to inflict pain and suffering on, are relevant to the Miller factors, she said.

It’s "offensive and unconscionable" to not allow the victims to take the stand and tell the truth, she said.

Oakland Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe denied Loftin's motion.

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During the first day of testimony Thursday, three people from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office testified about the scene at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, after the then 15-year-old teen opened fire in the hallways. He killed Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.

The hearing adjourned Friday afternoon and will continue on Tuesday.

Paranoia, hearing voices

During testimony Friday, Loftin read dozens of texts between Ethan and a friend. The texts suggest the teen was struggling with paranoia and felt his parents often didn't respond to his texts or requests for help.

Several texts suggested he worried about paranoia and sometimes described seeing things. He also mentioned hearing voices.

In one text exchange, he said he asked his dad to take him to the doctor, but "he just gave me some pills and told me to suck it up."

In another exchange, according to testimony, the teen contemplated calling 911 to get help but decided not to do it because his parents would be mad.

"I need help," he texted a friend, according to a message string his attorney read.

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Dr. Kenneth Romanowski, who is an expert in corrections, said the teen is under strict observation at all times in the Oakland County Jail, where he has been since November 2021. He has either been on suicide watch or active behavior watch the entire time, Romanowski said.

Romanowski said the teen takes his medication about half the time and sees a psychiatrist once a week. He has engaged in several incidents of self-harm: hitting his head into a wall, ramming his head into a door and possible suicidal behavior. He continued to report hearing voices and being paranoid.

He did not have any misconduct in jail until 2023, when from a three-month period between February and May, he had several minor rule violations, Romanowski said.

In Michigan, Romanowski said, of about 200 juvenile offenders have been released onto parole since the Miller decision in 2012, only one has been charged with a new crime.

Assistant Prosecutor David Williams asked Romanowski if he knew of the circumstances of the crime, and he acknowledged he did not. He noted, however, that he has never met an inmate he could never be rehabilitated.

"I think everybody has the potential to change, and I think Mr. Crumbley is no exception to that rule," Romanowski said. "But he has to be the one to say I'm going to make that change." 

Romanowski acknowledged that the facts of the case were disturbing.

"I find those facts to be horribly disturbing," Romanowski said. "But do I still think he has the opportunity or possibility to change? Yes."

Psychiatrist Fariha Qadir, who has worked with the teen since he entered the Oakland County Jail, said she saw the teen daily or every three days for the entire month of December 2021. She has seen him more than 100 times, with 15-minute visits, she said.

Qadir said Ethan talked about having two types of voices, one internal and one external. The external voice didn't interfere much with his life and came and went, she said. His internal thoughts were "more significant," Qadir said, and he struggled to get rid of them. They got worse in the two weeks before the shooting, she said.

She diagnosed him with adjustment disorder with anxiety and major depressive disorder. Adjustment disorder is usually related to something going on in someone's life, she said. He has regularly been taking Prozac, an antidepressant; hydroxyzine, which was used to help with sleep; and Trileptal, which is a mood stabilizer that Qadir said helped him with some of his anger episodes.

She did not elaborate on what the anger episodes were or how often they occurred. 

Assistant principal tried to talk to the shooter

Kristy Gibson-Marshall, the assistant principal prosecutors called to the stand Friday morning, knew Tate since he was 3.

Gibson-Marshall said she also knew the shooter; she said she had known him when he was a student at her elementary school. She didn't know him well, beyond the hugs and positive comments she exchanged with all of her students, she said.

On the day of the shooting, she was walking through the halls of the high school, monitoring passing time when a student she knew pretty well ran by her yelling "get the h--- out of here" followed by a rush of other running students. She didn't know what was going on, but neither did the students, until she heard the principal on the intercom putting the building into lockdown.

Instead of locking down in a room like she was supposed to, Gibson-Marshall walked the hallways before coming to the hallway where the shootings occurred. She was alone; the hallways had cleared out quickly after the lockdown announcement.

She heard gunshots, but instead of running away, she walked toward them.

"I needed to go find out; in my head, I needed to help," Gibson-Marshall said.

Then she saw the shooter walking toward her. She didn't recognize him at first, but she told her colleagues she had eyes on him. That's when she saw Tate, though she didn't yet know it was him.

When the shooter got closer to her, she realized it was Ethan.

"I just thought, 'It couldn't be Ethan; he wouldn't do that,'" Gibson-Marshall said. "And so I talked to him. I said, 'Are you OK?' and 'What's going on?'"

She walked with him for a few seconds, trying to talk to him. But when he looked away from her and didn't respond, instead walking past her quietly and calmly, she knew something was really wrong.

She didn't want to get too far away from the injured student, so she turned back, away from the shooter. She rolled him over and realized it was Tate. He had been shot in the back of the head.

Tate wasn't responding to her, but Gibson-Marshall said she kept giving him rescue breaths anyways.

"I just kept talking to him, saying that I love him. That I needed him to hang with me. He was blue, but when I was giving him breaths, he was getting lighter so I thought they were helping. So I kept giving him breaths."

After Gibson-Marshall finished testifying, she and Tate's parents, Sheri and Buck Myre, hugged and sobbed in the gallery. 

Students offer eyewitness testimony

McDonald called two student witnesses Friday to testify about their experiences on the day of the shooting.

Heidi Allen was one of the only people in the hallway right outside the bathroom immediately after the shooter exited who did not get shot. She was heading to the bathroom before her fifth-period math class began but never made it.

She noticed the shooter coming out of the bathroom and recognized him, though she noted she had never socialized with him before and only knew him as a quiet person. She said he "didn't answer when people talked to him." She saw the shooter raise the gun level with his eyes and point it at students in the hall, then watched as he shot Phoebe Arthur and then her boyfriend, Elijah Mueller. He fired at a group of girls next to her as well and she dropped down to the ground.

"I just prayed and covered my head because I didn't know if those were my last moments," Heidi said.

She could feel the shooter walking by her and she stayed down for several moments. When she opened her eyes, she saw several girls lying in the hallway. She asked if anyone had been shot; only Phoebe answered. She helped Phoebe up and told her she was going to be OK.

Heidi got them into an open classroom nearby. Though she had no idea how severe Phoebe's injuries were, or if she was going to be OK, she repeatedly reassured her of that.

"That's all I knew what to do," Heidi said. "I started to pray with her because I didn’t know what else to do. … (I told her) I think I'm supposed to be here right now. There's no other reason I was in this hallway completely untouched."

She tried to stop the bleeding while they waited for help. When officers arrived, they put Phoebe on a swivel chair to get her out of the school. Heidi said she made sure Phoebe wasn't facing the "chaos" in the hallway where the rest of the victims were.

Phoebe was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, but Heidi had to stay in the school. An officer told her at one point to look at the wall instead of the bodies and blood, so that’s what she did. 

Keegan Gregory, who was 15 when he heard the shooter kill Justin Shilling in a bathroom at the high school, also testified Friday.

Keegan's parents sat in the courtroom during his testimony. Chad, his father, closed his eyes when McDonald read texts from Keegan to his family's group text from that day. His mother, Meghan, bowed her head and leaned forward. A service dog and handler sat nearby while Keegan was on the stand.

Much of Keegan's story was told through text messages he sent his parents and sisters during the shooting. He texted his parents, in all caps, about the shooter. He said “HELP,” “GUN SHOTS,” “GUN,” “HELP,” “MOM,” “THERE RIGHT HERE. RIGHT OUTSIDE THE BATHROOM.”

“i’m terrified,” Keegan texted after his father told him to stay down and be quiet and calm. He heard a loud shot right outside the bathroom.

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Keegan was hiding with Justin Shilling in a stall in the bathroom when Keegan heard footsteps. Keegan said the shooter kicked the door in. He stared at them. Keegan said he didn’t remember if the shooter said anything. Keegan looked at him and said, "please." The shooter walked out of the stall.

Keegan said Friday that the shooter didn’t seem nervous, panicked or emotional. He said he was "kind of blank. Cold."

The shooter told Keegan to stay put and for Justin to come out of the stall with him. Justin obeyed, leaving Keegan crouching on the toilet. It was quiet for a second, then he heard a shot.

"I kind of didn't know what to think," Keegan said. "My mind wasn’t really believing that it happened."

The shooter came back into the stall and motioned for Keegan to come out with him and go over by Justin, who was lying in a pool of blood around his head. But Keegan ran behind the shooter's back and out the bathroom door, sprinting through the halls.

"I think when I saw (Justin's) body I realized if I stayed I was going to die," Keegan said.

Keegan said he didn’t learn Justin had died until some time after the shooting. He was in shock for "a long time." It took him several weeks to break down, he said.

He has a tattoo on his forearm of the date of the shooting in Roman numerals with four hearts under it. One heart is red with a halo around it — for Justin.

"I kinda thought of it as, if he didn't die in there, then I'd be dead right now," Keegan said of why Justin's heart was surrounded by a halo.

Justin's father, Craig Shilling, was visibly upset after the testimony; he was surrounded by supporters, other victims' families and the police.

kberg@detroitnews.com