A pre-sentencing hearing resumes this week for the teenager who killed four classmates in 2021 at Michigan’s Oxford High School. Prosecutors argue the murders were so heinous, that the shooter should die in prison, no matter how young he was at the time of the crime.
Ethan Crumbley was 15 when he shot four Oxford students to death – most at point-blank range.
Prosecutors say he surrendered afterwards to watch the suffering he’d inflicted. And they say that demands a sentence of life without parole.
But defense attorney Paulette Loftin counters that Crumbley’s parents refused to get mental health care for their son despite his pleas for it, and instead bought him a gun.
She says that makes him different from others who may be mentally ill when they commit crimes.
“And that’s because most of them get intervention," she said. "That’s because good parents recognize when their child is circling the drain.”
Prosecutors have charged Crumbley’s parents with involuntary manslaughter.