(WWJ) – Just over two years after Madisyn Baldwin, Justin Shilling, Tate Myre and Hana St. Juliana were killed and seven others injured in the Oxford High School shooting, the confessed killer is set to learn his sentence this week.
On a new Daily J podcast, WWJ's Zach Clark takes a look back at the tragic day that rocked the small Metro Detroit community, as well as a look ahead at Ethan Crumbley's sentencing hearing, scheduled for Friday, Dec. 8.
While the judge has determined there were mitigating factors in Crumbley's case — including his young age and his parents' shortcomings — WWJ Legal Analyst Charlie Langton says they were not enough to avoid the possibility of life in prison without parole.
"That was outweighed pretty much by the severity of the crime itself, the planning of the crime, the manipulation of the crime," Langton said, noting the judge "also made it a point to look at the lack of potential rehabilitation."
"[Crumbley] was obsessed with violence, and even in the jail he manipulated a computer so he could look at potentially violent videos," Langton said. "Based on those rulings, the judge found that the prosecutor met her burden to establish enough facts that this could be a life-in-prison case."
WWJ's Jackie Paige recalls that "everything changed" when she picked up the phone the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021.
"When this phone call came in, it was a gentleman on the other end who was having a difficult time speaking because he was in hysterics," she told Clark. "Then in a very shaky voice, he said 'my daughter is in a lockdown at Oxford High School.' And he said 'there's a shooting there and he's killing people.' And immediately we were on it."
As Paige spoke with the man for at least 10 minutes, the WWJ Newsroom began gathering information, while Jon Hewett and other WWJ reporters headed to the scene.
"One of the things that was most striking was just how fast information was coming," Hewett said. "So often when you go to a scene — and it's understandable — law enforcement is securing a scene, they don't necessarily, outside of maybe giving you some preliminary information, by and large, they don't tell you a lot."
But that wasn't the case that day in Oxford, Hewett said.
"They gauged that the community wanted answers. It was so horrific, so over the top. We see shootings across the country all the time, unfortunately, but this one was home and it shocked everybody to the extent that people wanted answers and they wanted them quickly," Hewett said.
While Friday's sentencing is the closing of a major chapter in the Oxford shooting case, it will continue as the shooter's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, remain on trial for involuntary manslaughter, and appeals of Friday's sentencing remain possible.
"Certainly, the proceedings are wrapping up in connection with the Oxford shooting. But we know nothing is really coming to an end. In an event like this, there is no end. People will be forever grieving and the Oxford community is forever changed. I suppose now the only hope is justice and closure," Clark concluded the podcast.
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