Ethan Crumbley, who killed four students at a Michigan high school in 2021, was sentenced to life in prison without parole, a judge decided on Friday.
Before his sentence, the 17-year-old admitted that he is a “very bad person.”
“I’m a very bad person. I’ve done horrible things that nobody should do,” he told the court, CNN reported .
Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, opened fire at Oxford High School, outside Detroit, on November 30, 2021, killing four students: Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Shilling, 17. Another seven were injured.
He pleaded guilty in October to all 24 charges against him, including first-degree murder and terrorism. Just two months ago, a judge ruled the teenager would be eligible for life imprisonment – the harshest punishment possible in Michigan.
The sentence comes after emotional testimony from witnesses earlier in the day as Judge Kwame Rowe reflected on Crumbley’s fate.
“We are unhappy. Our family has a permanent hole that can never be mended. And it doesn’t seem to be an end. So, to this day, you are winning,” Myre’s father, Buck, told the teenager.
Baldwin’s heartbroken mother recalls seeing her daughter’s lifeless body in the coroner’s office after the shooting.
“I looked through the glass. My scream should have broken everything,” said Nicole Beausoleil.
Shilling’s mother told Crumbley, who was sitting with his head down, that he executed someone who could have been a friend when he needed one the most.
“If you were so alone, so miserable and lost, and really needed a friend, Justin would have been your friend – if you had asked,” Jill Soave said.
“You may have caused the pain and terror as intended, but you did not destroy us,” she added.
Shilling’s older sister spoke about the things she hoped to do with her when they grew up, like shopping and talking at each other’s weddings.
“Instead of talking at your wedding, I spoke at your funeral,” said a tearful Reina St. Juliana. “Instead of pinning your hair for a game, I wrapped your hair in a coffin.”
The night before the massacre, Crumbley recorded a manifesto stating that “I would be the next school shooter” and said he planned to kill as many people as possible.
He also wrote disturbing notes in his diary, in which he daydreamed about shooting up the school. Crumbley wrote that he didn’t want to die and wanted to be remembered.
Crumbley and his parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, met with school officials on the day of the shooting after a teacher found some of his gruesome scribbles in his diary, including a gun pointed at the words “Thoughts won’t stop. Help Me.”
He was allowed to remain at school after his parents resisted taking him home, and his backpack, which contained a firearm, was never checked.
Baldwin, Myre and St. Juliana were shot dead on the day of the massacre. Shilling died from her injuries at the hospital the day after.
Attorney Ven Johnson, representing the four deceased victims, called Friday’s decision “a crucial step towards justice for our clients and all survivors.”
“Despite the two-year delay, the seriousness of the situation persists and this sentence is a crucial step towards accountability,” he said in a statement.
“We wholeheartedly support Judge Kwame Rowe’s decision to condemn him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”
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