PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) – A teenager was sentenced to life in prison Friday for killing four students, wounding more, and terrorizing Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021.
A judge rejected pleas for a shorter sentence and ensured that Ethan Crumbley, 17, will not get an opportunity for parole.
Life sentences for teenagers are rare in Michigan since the U.S. Supreme Court and the state’s highest court said the violent acts of minors must be viewed differently than the crimes of adults.
Judge Kwame Rowe’s decision followed anguished remarks by families of the deceased and survivors who spoke about how the tragedy has affected them.
“Your statements,” Rowe said, “do not fall on deaf ears.”
Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including first-degree murder and terrorism.
“We are miserable. We miss Tate,” said Buck Myre, the father of Tate Myre. “Our family has a permanent hole in it that can never be fixed – ever.”
Nicole Beausoleil recalled seeing the body of her daughter, Madisyn Baldwin, at the medical examiner’s office, her hand with blue-painted fingernails sticking out from a covering.
“I looked though the glass. My scream should have shattered it,” Beausoleil
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