Oxford shooter broke down after killings: 'I'm sorry. Please, God'

Pontiac — Defense attorneys played videos Tuesday of the Oxford High School shooter in the midst of breakdowns in the Oakland County Jail as they attempted to show he has mental health issues and remorse, including an instance where he said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please, God."

At times, Ethan Crumbley was incoherent in the video clips. But at other times, the gunman who killed four students and wounded seven other individuals in November 2021 asked: "Why didn’t you save her?"; "Why didn’t you stop it? You let it happen"; and "You could’ve stopped it, God, but you didn’t stop it.”

The video clips contrasted with videos that the teen made the night before the shooting and that were shown last week in court by Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald's office showing the teen describing a disbelief in God and how he would go to the school and try to "kill everyone."

The hearing, which finished its third day Tuesday, will determine whether the teen shooter should be sentenced to life without parole or a term of years in prison. The defense rested its case Tuesday afternoon with an expert who described the teen as a "feral" child who "lost track of reality." Prosecutors pursued an aggressive line of questions that tried to undermine the expert's conclusions.

Colin King, a licensed psychologist who is an expert in traumatic brain injury, said the teen faced isolation and neglect before the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting. He testified that based on his meetings with the shooter and reviewing the teen's text messages, it appeared he never got help for mental health issues.

“When I interviewed Ethan and looked at his profile, at his high level of isolation, lack of parental support, lack of guidance, lack of resources … psychologically and socially he can be considered a feral child,” King said during Tuesday's testimony in Oakland County Circuit Court.

Many of Assistant Prosecutor David Williams’ questions revolved around a report by psychiatrist Lisa Anacker, which concluded the shooter was not mentally ill. Williams pointed to the shooter’s calm demeanor after his arrest and a lack of response to any internal stimuli he may have been having.

Williams questioned if the “extreme sorrow” the teen felt after the shooting was because he killed four people or because he was in jail. He also criticized King’s report, noting there was little, if any, information about the four students the teen killed and the seven others he injured.

The hearing is scheduled to continue Aug. 18 when prosecutors plan to call Anacker as a rebuttal witness. Anacker interviewed the shooter in March 2022 but did not do any testing to determine his mental state, defense attorney Paulette Loftin wrote in a motion to exclude her testimony.

Throughout their case, defense attorneys presented evidence that the shooter 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. Their goal is to convince the judge that factors, including his family and home environment, the circumstances of the crime and the possibility of rehabilitation, make a life without parole sentence disproportionate.

Psychiatrist Fariha Qadir, who has worked with the teen since he entered the Oakland County Jail, said Friday the teen 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.

The defense began its case following an emotional morning in court Friday when prosecutors brought up two students who witnessed the shootings and an assistant principal who tried to save 16-year-old Tate Myre. McDonald's office has argued that the shooter's behavior was so egregious that he should be incarcerated for life.

Tate and three other students — Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17 — were killed in the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School. Six other students and a teacher were injured. Teacher Molly Darnell was the only witness testifying for prosecutors who had been wounded in the shooting.

Prosecutors have the burden of proof to show that the shooter is deserving of a life in prison without parole sentence and that such a sentence would be proportional to the crime, even with mitigating factors like the teen's age, mental health and childhood.

The shooter's defense attorneys are trying to convince the judge that he should be sentenced to time in prison, which would be no less than 25 to 40 years at a minimum and no more than 60 at a maximum, with a chance at parole.

Psychologist: Shooter 'lost track of reality'

During King's initial Friday testimony, he said he spent about 24 hours testing and interviewing the shooter and conducted about 15 assessments over six sessions. He noted instances when the shooter was a child, as early as age 6, when he was left unattended and would end up at his neighbor’s house, scared and asking for help.

He spent countless hours watching adult video games and spent an “inordinate amount of time” on websites viewing graphic scenes, the expert said.

“He indicated after a while, he began to fantasize about being a part of those scenes,” King said. “He sort of lost track of reality.”

King noted that a beloved dog dying, like the teen had in 2021, could be traumatic. The dog died at home, and the teen had to dispose of the body. A month before the shooting, his best friend, someone King noted might have been his only friend, went away to a rehabilitation facility. His mom told him he probably would never see his friend again.

“The part that stood out for me was when he told his parents he was hearing voices and he needed to see a therapist,” King said. “I don’t know what 15-year-old raises his hand and says, ‘My brain hurts, I need to see a therapist.’ And it never happened.” 

In testing, King found the teen was not feigning psychotic symptoms and had a normal level of mental functioning. His stress symptoms, depression and anxiety were high, King said.

“(The teen’s immediate concerns are) all related to his confusion surrounding his actions,” King wrote in his report. “He is trying to grapple with the enormity of the loss of life and his involvement. He reports nightmares, depression, and extreme sorrow over the outcome over his actions.”

King diagnosed him with major depressive disorder with psychosis and acute anxiety disorder. 

Loftin then played several videos from the Oakland County Jail of the teen crying and repeating himself, begging to know why God did not stop the shooting. The body camera footage from jail deputies was taken earlier this year.

King said these videos showed “a child in the throes of psychosis.” He said the teen was having a panic attack and a break with reality. 

Buck and Sheri Myre, the parents of Tate Myre, who was killed in the attack, visibly reacted to the video of the shooter in jail, both appearing disturbed by the audio and video recording.  

King said when the teen hacked into his tablet at the jail in January and went to a website with violent content, he restrained himself for two weeks before he looked at the site, which he had spent hours on every day prior to his arrest. King said the teen told him he was proud he was able to resist for so long.

“When you make a comparison of what he was doing prior, he was ingesting that content constantly,” King said. “Every day, hours and hours at a time. In my mind, that shows progress. Not perfection, but progress.”

The teen's brain is still maturing, King said, and it probably will not reach full maturity for another 10 years. He expressed a belief that the teen could be rehabilitated and can change. 

King said at age 6, the shooter asked: “Wouldn’t it be cool if cars could just crash into this school and kill a lot of people?” He began having violent thoughts at a young age, King said, and combining that with things like violent video games is a “recipe for disaster.”

“Essentially, that person loses sight of reality and begins to fantasize about what they’re feasting on. Then they sort of start imaging themselves as a part of the action,” King said.

The teen has PTSD from the shooting, King said, and he has had nightmares and “extreme sorrow” over the outcome of his actions. The teen indicated on a mental health questionnaire that he feels guilty “all the time.”

“Ethan is slowly coming to grips with what he did and the horror that transpired afterwards,” King said. “I don’t think Ethan knows fully why he wanted to kill.”

Prosecution's eyewitnesses' testimony

King's testimony came after prosecutors wrapped up their witness presentation Friday with students Keegan Gregory, who was in the bathroom with Justin when he was shot and killed, and Heidi Allen, who rendered possibly lifesaving aid to a wounded classmate, and Oxford High School Assistant Principal Kristy Gibson-Marshall.

Gibson-Marshall's testimony left much of the courtroom in tears, including the shooter, who showed emotion for the first time during her testimony about trying to save Tate, whom she had known since he was 3. Tate had been shot in the back of the head.

The shooter pursed his lips as tears began dripping down his face during Gibson-Marshall's testimony.

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

kberg@detroitnews.com