Ethan Crumbley’s defense attorney said her client is remorseful two years after the deadly Oxford High School shooting and that a lifetime in prison will be “extremely difficult” for him.
“I can’t tell you exactly what he’s told me but over 175 visits I’ve had with him, there’s remorse,” attorney Paulette Loftin said in the courtroom hallway after sentencing.
Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing four people and injuring seven others at the high school in 2021.
Loftin said she’s proud of Crumbley for making a statement in court and apologizing, something she said she did not know he would do.
“I’m proud of him. It’s a first step to healing for the community and for him moving forward and dealing with a lifetime that’s going to be extremely difficult,” she said.
Asked what is different for Crumbley since the shooting two years ago, Loftin said things like “medication, seeing a therapist, having positive adults in his life” were all part of the change that has begun for him.
Loftin also said Crumbley wasn’t surprised by the sentence.
“He is relieved that this is done, he’s been in solitary confinement for two years,” Loftin told reporters. “For someone that is very, very young, that is difficult so I know he is happy to move forward and wants to look forward to being rehabilitated.“
Teenager Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing four classmates and wounding seven other people in a shooting at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021.
Family members and loved ones of those killed and injured in the attack delivered emotional statements in court Friday as they urged the judge to sentence Crumbley to the harshest penalty possible, which was life without parole.
Speaking to the court before his sentencing, Crumbley said no one could have stopped him and that he is a “really bad person.”
In October 2022, the gunman pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder and 19 other charges. Michigan doesn’t have the death penalty, but a judge had ruled the shooter was eligible for life without parole, despite him being 15 years old at the time of the shooting.
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