Oxford shooter's hearing concludes; judge to decide if he can get parole in Sept.

Pontiac — Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said she will never forget having to show Madisyn Baldwin’s mother the video of how she died at Oxford High School.

The 16-year-old’s instinct when faced with Ethan Crumbley holding a gun and shooting her classmates was to crouch to the ground in a fetal position and put her hands over her head. He shot her at point blank range.

Madisyn was the seventh person the then-15-year-old shot in the hallways at Oxford High School in November 2021. He shot four more after her.

Now, it'll be up to an Oakland County Circuit Court judge to determine if the shooter is eligible to spend the rest of his life in prison. After an emotional hearing wrapped Friday, Judge Kwame Rowe is expected to release a decision Sept. 29 and the teen will be sentenced Dec. 8.

More:Parents of slain Oxford students still want answers after Miller hearing

McDonald and defense attorney Paulette Loftin gave closing arguments Friday after four days of testimony in the shooter's Miller hearing.

Loftin asked Rowe to give the shooter a term of years. Doing so isn't setting a release date, she said. He doesn't just walk out of prison once he reaches the minimum sentence, which would be between 25 and 40 years, Loftin said. He has to prove himself, attend therapy and classes and not engage in assaultive behavior while in prison, she said. He has to show he was rehabilitated.

"It is putting the ball in his court, and it is making someone else make the decision when they have those decades of records," Loftin said. "I’m asking you to not penalize him for the fact that the law changes and we’re doing this prior to the sentencing. … I’m asking you to give him a chance."

Prosecutors, meanwhile, argued that the shooter, who killed four students and injured seven others, is a rare teen who deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. McDonald said she generally does not advocate for life in prison without parole sentences for juveniles. But this is a case where it is necessary, she said.

“No other mass shooters in this country made a plan to stay alive so he could see the suffering (he caused),” McDonald said.

The shooter pleaded guilty in October to killing Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. He also pleaded guilty to injuring six other students and a teacher, who was the only injured victim to testify during the shooter's hearing.

McDonald: Shooter was 'cold and calculated'

In her closing arguments, McDonald detailed, again, how the shooter chose his victims — that the first should be a pretty girl with a future so she could suffer like him — and how he shot both Hana and Tate multiple times. How he shot Madisyn at point blank range as she crouched in a fetal position with her hands covering her head. How he ordered Justin out of the bathroom stall and killed him on the bathroom floor.

"These acts were carried out in a cold and calculated manner," McDonald said. "They were intended to have a devastating impact on as many people as he could."

McDonald didn’t deny that the shooter’s parents neglected him. She called the texts where the then-10-year-old begged his mom to come home because he was scared "heartbreaking."

"It’s shocking and devastating to have parents say to the school counselor, 'We don’t have time to take him for help,'" McDonald said. “I agree with all of that and I have compassion, I do. But both things can be true. We can feel compassion, but we can also fashion an appropriate sentence and reckon with the very severe circumstances of this crime."

McDonald said in other Miller cases she has handled, there was a reason for the homicides. Not a justifiable reason, but there was something to explain why it happened: A theft, a plot between peers, substance abuse, gang violence, peer pressure. But there was no explanation for why Ethan killed four students, shot six others and a teacher, and terrorized an entire community, she said.

"He stated he wanted to kill young people because they had their whole life ahead of them and they had a future," McDonald said. "For this defendant, life without parole is not a cruel or unusual punishment. … It's a just, proportional sentence. His life will be spared, just the way he wanted."

Defense: Cases against Ethan, his parents are 'contradictory'

In arguing against eligibility for life in prison, Loftin argued that the shooter felt neglected and alone in the time leading up to the shooting. He didn't feel safe anywhere and had quit his job and the bowling team. His only friend had left town unexpectedly, his dog died and he was depressed, suicidal and anxious. He wrote on a math worksheet: "The thoughts won't stop" and "help me," among other concerning statements.

"The prosecutor is right. He didn’t come out and tell the counselor his plan. But he didn't have to. Wasn't it glaringly obvious?" Loftin said. "Again, Ethan was overlooked. Ethan, in his own way crying out for help, still went unnoticed."

Loftin said if there was a question of who cared about him, it was settled in the counselor’s office. It wasn’t his parents. They said they were too busy with work to take him to get treatment and left him in school.

She pointed out the interaction in the hallway during the shooting with Assistant Principal Kristy Gibson-Marshall, where Gibson-Marshall called out to the shooter. He walked past her and Tate’s body without shooting her.

"She acted like she cared," Loftin said. "He finally had someone who was caring about him."

Loftin criticized the prosecutor's office for using contradictory language during the Miller hearing compared with that used during the shooter's parents' involuntary manslaughter case. She quoted McDonald saying at James and Jennifer Crumbley's preliminary exam that "there was no question at that point that no one cared about him," referencing the meeting in the counselor's office the morning before the shooting.

"We have one set of facts here. You can't stand in two different courtrooms and argue two different things when it's one set of facts," Loftin said.

She said it is disingenuous to argue the shooter doesn't have a mental illness, as prosecutors have been during the Miller hearing. The prosecutor's sole rebuttal witness Friday, psychiatrist Dr. Lisa Anacker, said the shooter did not meet the statutory definition of being mentally ill.

McDonald called Loftin’s statements "offensive and unconscionable." She denied that her statements during the Miller hearing and his parents' case were contradictory.

She said there was no doubt the shooter was in mental distress and in crisis. But he does not meet the statutory requirement for mental illness.

Michigan law defines mental illness as a "substantial disorder of thought or mood that significantly impairs judgment, behavior, capacity to recognize reality, or ability to cope with the ordinary demands of life."

Psychiatrist testifies shooter wasn't mentally ill

Testimony began Friday with a rebuttal witness for the prosecution, Dr. Lisa Anacker, a staff psychiatrist and consulting forensic examiner at the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry who met with the shooter in March 2022.

Anacker said after her review of the teen, she found he did not meet the statutory definition of being mentally ill, despite testimony from a previous defense expert that the shooter was mentally ill. Anacker said he showed no signs of disorganized speech, no signs of psychosis and it would be unusual for someone to "turn off" psychosis and function without issues.

"He did not meet criteria for a substantial disorder of thought or mood specifically at the time of shooting," Anacker said.

Anacker, who has done hundreds of examinations to determine competency, though only a few of children, said she reviewed videos of the teen during and after the shooting, as well as jail records. She said she did not see any signs of psychosis or hallucinations, which should have been noticeable if the shooter’s self-reports of hallucinations were true.

She didn’t dispute that the teen may have been depressed and had low moods but said he did not meet the requirements for major depressive disorder, including disorganized speech.

Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast asked Anacker about the possibility of the teen having fetal alcohol syndrome, which often includes intellectual disabilities, cognitive impairments and dysmorphic facial features. Anacker said he did not meet the characteristics of the disorder, was not screened for it, and she does not think he has it.

On cross-examination, Loftin asked Anacker about the comments the shooter made to her about the time leading up to the shooting and if there was any mention of psychosis.

Anacker said that the shooter told her that as he left the bathroom to start the shooting, he was thinking: “Don’t do it, don’t do it, you are not going to do it.” Then he started shooting, he told her.

He said that he realized what he had done when he was in the bathroom with Justin and Keegan Gregory. He saw Keegan was scared and felt bad, so he let him go, Anacker testified that he told him.

She said the shooter told him: "I felt like I had to say I was remorseful when it first happened, but that’s what I actually feel now." 

While the violent thoughts the shooter self-reported are not normal, Anacker said, they also do not meet clinical diagnoses for psychotic mental illnesses.

"It's very hard to imagine someone who is sane can torture animals and commit mass murders," Anacker said. "It may seem completely horrible or illogical to people who are not in that situation, but it does not automatically equate to mental illness." 

Anacker's testimony came several weeks after another expert called by the shooter's attorney, Colin King, a psychologist, testified that the shooter was psychotic and that his parents ignored pleas for help.

Oxford families react

Families of victims of the shooting were present in court on Friday, including Steve St. Juliana, father of Hana; Craig Shilling, father of Justin; Buck and Sheri Myre, parents of Tate; and Nicole Beausoleil, mother of Madisyn Baldwin.

Buck Myre spoke to the media after the court hearing, saying the Miller hearings provided more evidence the attack was "an epic systematic failure" by the schools, the parents, the suspect and by the government which, he says, is hiding behind immunity laws.

"Lots of cover-up and game-playing going on. We didn’t really know anything about that day," Buck said, his wife Sheri standing next to him, outside court.

Watching the video surveillance of his son, Tate, being shot was painful, Buck said, but also gave the family something.

"There was a little bit of relief to know with Tate that he was not alone. That was refreshing for Sheri and I," Buck said.

What he and his family need to heal, Buck said, is accountability.

"It's a four-legged monster. You've got the shooter, the parents, the school and you’ve got our community," Buck said. "We are taking care of the community (with the 42 Strong Foundation), the prosecutor is taking care of the shooter and the parents, but the system isn't allowing us to hold the system accountable."

The teen's parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, are also charged in connection with the shooting. Both face four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The case is currently pending in the Michigan Supreme Court after the Crumbleys' attorneys appealed a district court judge's decision to have them stand trial in Oakland County Circuit Court.

kberg@detroitnews.com