Oxford High School Shooter Appeals Life Sentence; lawyer says new evidence doesn't support him | News

DETROIT (WWJ) — An armed teenager who pleaded guilty in a deadly 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan has appealed his life sentence, arguing that new evidence calls into question his understanding of his guilty plea.

In a statement Friday, the Michigan Appellate Defender's Office, which represents Ethan Crumbley, 18, said a motion had been filed asking the trial court to consider new evidence and grant a new conviction, arguing that the sentence “for a child is inadmissible”. “

Crumbley pleaded guilty to several charges, including murder and terrorism, on November 30, 2021, in a shooting at his high school that killed four people and injured seven others.

In December 2023, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Records show he is housed in Oaks Correctional Facility, an all-male facility.

“Some of this new evidence includes seven witnesses who could have discussed Ethan's childhood difficulties and his mother's alcohol abuse during pregnancy; the potential impact of the overall turmoil caused by fetal alcohol abuse on Ethan's life, including the social and emotional maturity of a child younger than his chronological age and an expert witness to correctly present information about Ethan and his childhood rather than a witness who; “cut and pasted information from other reports and failed to understand the clues to assess a sentence of life without parole for a child,” reads the statement from the public defender's office.

The shooter's parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were each convicted of manslaughter in separate trials earlier this year for their roles in the shooting, and were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison.

During their trials, prosecutors argued that the shooting was preventable and that James and Jennifer Crumbley ignored their son's mental health needs and bought him the gun that was used in the shooting.

The Crumbleys have since obtained appeals lawyers in their case, saying they were wrongly convicted.

The defender's office says the new evidence does not support a life sentence without parole and asks that the shooter receive a “constitutionally appropriate sentence for a 15-year-old child.”

The shooter, who turned 18 earlier this year, was 15 at the time of the shooting.

“Due process requires that anyone pleading understands what they are doing, this is even more true when the person pleading is a child,” read a statement from the defender’s office.

In May, a judge denied the shooter's request for his parents to use their pre-sentence reports in his appeal.

The shooter asked a state court for the reports that were used in his parents' trials, arguing that his family and home environment were relevant to his appeal.

The sentencing court had to take into account his family history, including his home environment, as he was a minor at the time of the shooting. In response, prosecutors took no position on the issue and noted that the parents' pre-sentence reports were not completed until several months after the shooter's conviction.

An attorney for Jennifer Crumbley wrote in a court filing that the documents are “privileged and confidential” and that she had “not waived her statutory privilege authorizing the release of her pre-sentence report.”

James Crumbley's attorney wrote that the shooter is “able-bodied” and “capable of advising his attorney about his childhood, parents and home environment.” The lawyer has failed to explain to this honorable Court why it cannot obtain this evidence directly from him. “