The teenager who killed four of his classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021 was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Friday, the New York Times reported.
Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 years old at the time of the shooting, also injured seven others. The victims who died were Madisyn Baldwin, Justin Shilling, Tate Myre, and Hana St. Juliana; all were between the ages of 14 and 17. Crumbley pleaded guilty to all of the charges leveled against him, including murder and terrorism. He shot the students with a handgun his father, James Crumbley, had purchased for him less than a week earlier.
“Nov. 30, 2021, is a day that has forever changed my life,” “ Nicole Beausoleil, the mother of one of the four students killed, said in court, according to the Times. “It’s a feeling that no parent should ever feel. It burns into my body like a cigarette burn.”
“I don’t wish death upon you, that would be too easy,” she told Crumbley. “I hope the thoughts consume you and they replay over and over in your head,” she said. “I hope the screams keep you up at night.”
St. Juliana’s father, Steve St. Juliana, said, per the publication: “There is utterly nothing that he could ever do to contribute to society that would make up for the lives that he has so ruthlessly taken.”
In October, a Michigan Supreme Court ruled that James Crumbley and his wife Jennifer Crumbley would also face trial on involuntary manslaughter charges over the shooting. The Crumbleys’ lawyers have argued that they couldn’t foresee their son’s actions, while the prosecution said Ethan’s parents should have paid more attention to their son and his issues.
“I am a really bad person. I have done terrible things that no one should ever do,” their son told the court before his sentencing on Friday, according to CNN. “I do plan to be better”
As Rolling Stone previously reported, James and Jennifer Crumbley are the first parents to face a trial over their role in a school shooting, and have spent the past two years in jail fighting the charges and seeking a dismissal.
