PONTIAC (WWJ) – The defense team for confessed Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley has rested its case in the pre-sentencing Miller hearing to determine whether he will face life in prison without the chance of parole.
While a third day of testimony wrapped up Tuesday in an Oakland County courtroom, the Miller hearing will resume Aug. 18, when prosecutors plan to call a rebuttal witness to the stand. It was not immediately clear what the witness will be rebutting.
The lone defense witness to take the stand during Tuesday's testimony was psychologist Dr. Colin King, who examined Crumbley over a period of days following the November 2021 shootings that killed four students and injured seven other people.
King testified he believes the shooter can be rehabilitated.
In an exchange with defense counsel Paulette Loften about Crumbley's competence, he said Crumbley "has major depressive disorder with psychosis, anxiety and features of obsessive compuslive disorder."
"He is mentally ill," King said.
When Loftin asked King if he believed the shooter could be rehabilitated over the course of a prison sentence, he said, "I do."
While he agreed with Loftin that Crumbley is "a highly intelligent person," he said "intelligence does not protect someone from mental illness."
But under cross examination, Prosecutor David Williams challenged King's report of the school shooting as glossing over Crumbley's actions. Williams pointed out King's report never mentioned the number of victims in the shooting or suggested Crumbley is responsible for their deaths.
King described Crumbley as a "feral child," saying he had been abandoned by his parents.
Tuesday's hearing came after two days of "chilling" testimony from students and teachers who described the terror they experienced the day Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Justin Shilling, 17, Tate Myre, 16 and Hana St. Juliana, 14, were killed and seven others were wounded.
After the Aug. 18 hearing, judge Kwame Rowe will decide whether to sentence Crumbley, now 17, to life without parole or a term of years. If it's the latter, the minimum sentence could be between 25 and 40 years, with a maximum of years.
Crumbley pleaded guilty last October to all 24 felony charges against him, including four counts of first-degree murder and one count of terrorism.
His parents are separately charged with involuntary manslaughter.
