PONTIAC, Mich. (CN) —The pre-sentencing hearing for the high school student who killed four classmates during a 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, continued on Tuesday for its third day — with a fourth on the horizon — as a brain injury expert testified that the shooter, Ethan Crumbley, had a history of mentally illness and instability going back to his childhood.
Colin King, a child clinical psychologist and brain injury expert based in Wayne County told the court he met with the shooter for about 22 hours earlier this year over the course of six sessions. He prepared a 69-page report and attempted to explain his diagnosis of severe depression and anxiety with psychosis.
King explained the shooter’s early life was unstable. He said he interviewed a neighbor and learned that the shooter was often left alone by his parents. King said the neighbor told him the shooter would often come over to the neighbor’s house when there was a thunderstorm, or he was spooked by something.
The shooter experienced trauma on several levels, according to King. When his beloved dog died, he was forced to drag the body outside and bury the remains on his own. On another occasion his mother told him he would never see his close friend ever again when he left for rehab.
King referred to the shooter as a “feral” child, isolated from human contact from a young age and lacking the experience connecting with others to develop social skills and empathy.
The shooter’s school system also let him down, King determined. There were not enough staff employed at Oxford High School to give him a chance for mental help. King surmised that most of his teachers did not expect the bad behavior to escalate.
King said that the shooter’s behavior was designed to get attention and that it was surprising when school officials did not notice.
The defense attempted to suggest a fall at work could have caused a significant brain injury to the shooter. King brought an egg and a glass bowl to the courtroom to demonstrate how fragile the brain can be. When he dropped the egg from about a foot and a half above the bowl and it broke, King said the shooter’s brain could be damaged in the same way.
Disturbing police body camera footage of the shooter under arrest was also shown in court. In one clip, the shooter yelled nonsensically, flailing about in chair restraints with a spit hood on as police officers surrounded him.
“He is mentally ill,” King concluded. “A child in the throes of psychosis.”
He added that the video demonstrated the shooter’s young brain finally attempted to process the consequences from his actions and he was having a panic attack as a result.
During cross-examination assistant Oakland County Prosecutor David Williams aggressively challenged the accuracy of King’s findings and questioned why some of his sources were not listed in his report.
King admitted the interview with the shooter’s neighbor was not sourced but claimed he had documentation that he could not produce in the moment. King also said he did not know that the shooter tortured birds in the shed where he took the dog, behavior described during earlier court testimony.
Williams was not convinced the work video of the shooter demonstrated he hit his head, but King was steadfast.
“Based on my review, that is what appeared to happen,” he maintained.
Williams accused King of selectively using text messages from the shooter to reinforce his opinion. Of 20,000 messages King used about 200 texts to make his point, all taken from the same day.
King's analysis of the body camera video of the shooter’s erratic behavior was also limited to one night.
The child psychologist noted the shooter has expressed “extreme sorrow” in jail. But Williams countered by suggesting the shooter could be sad because he was in prison and knew he would spend the rest of his life there.
“Lots of people suffer from severe depression and don’t become mass shooters,” the prosecutor said.
Under redirect, the shooter’s lawyer Paulette Lofton addressed that comment by Williams and retorted that most people who suffer from depression “get interventions.” Lofton also noted it was the shooter’s neighbor who sought out the legal team, wanting to tell their story.
Heartbreaking testimony filled the day Friday, and even though Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwamé L. Rowe hoped to wrap things up that afternoon, the parties were back Tuesday morning to continue.
As the hearing began last Thursday, the shooter tried to shield himself from a life prison sentence — and from viewing some of the evidence collected against him.
The shooter, who was 15 years old when he shot up Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, was charged as an adult. After initially pleading not guilty, in October 2022 Crumbley admitted to all 24 charges against him and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, which triggered the need for the hearing based on the 2012 Miller v. Alabama U.S. Supreme Court ruling that mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles violated the Eighth Amendment. In 2022, the Michigan Supreme Court made the same ruling.
Eight victims survived the massacre while three students died the day of the shooting, while a fourth victim succumbed to his injuries the next morning.
Oxford, with a population of 3,586, is in central Oakland County, about 40 miles north of Detroit.
Judge Rowe set a date to resume the hearing on Friday, August 18 so the prosecution can have a rebuttal witness testify.
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