DETROIT (CN) — The Michigan high school student behind the worst school shooting in state history will spend the rest of his life in prison without the hope for parole.
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwame’ L. Rowe ruled Ethan Crumbley’s obsession with violence drove his actions, not his claimed mental illness.
“He could have changed his mind, but he didn’t,” the judge said.
He added: “He asked for the weapon he could do the most damage with, he chose not to die that day because he wanted to see the misery.”
The shooter, sporting a shorter new haircut, spoke at length at the hearing for the first time.
“Um, we are all here because of me,” he began. “I’m a really bad person. I’ve lied. I’ve hurt many people. I do plan to be better. I will change. I really am sorry.”
More than two dozen people testified over the course of the day. Nicole Baldwin, mother of Madisyn Baldwin who was killed by the shooter, worked to stay composed as she discussed the joy of raising her daughter.
“She made me the mom I am today,” she said. “She is a light when you need it most.”
All that was destroyed by the shooter.
“She became a statistic,” Baldwin lamented.
Baldwin recounted how she paced through the Meijer that was used as a meeting area, looking for her daughter, before being pulled into a room at the grocery store and informed of her death.
“I don’t have good news about these children, they are deceased,” Baldwin said she was told.
“All I was offered was a table at the medical examiner, where I had to identify her,” she continued.
Baldwin said Madisyn was laying on a gurney with bluish-colored hand laying out from underneath the sheet.
“I was dragged away from her like a toddler, screaming,” she told the judge.
Baldwin saved her ire for the shooter who she addressed as “waste.”
“The regret will consume you,” she predicted. “Might not happen tomorrow, but it will happen.”
She concluded: “No one will love you. No one will forgive you.”
The father of Tate Myre, Buck Myer, was emotional, with a quivering voice as soon as he walked to the podium.
He spoke in an off-the-cuff manner, recalling his experiences of how he learned of the shooting.
“Got a call from my wife,” he said.
“I had a feeling something didn’t feel right,” he said as he described being called into the manager’s office at the Meijer, where he was told Tate was gone.
“Not my baby boy,” Mire said his wife exclaimed.
Mire said love was currently absent from his family because there is no joy. He confessed his marriage is struggling because of the shooting.
“And we didn’t even do anything to each other,” he sighed.
Mire offered his suggestion for the shooter’s sentence and spoke to him directly even though the shooter would not look back.
“We want you to spend the rest of your life rotting in your cell.”
Craig Schilling, the father of Justin Schilling, struggled to control his anger as he made his statements.
“These events have rocked three generations of my family,” he said, and talked about how his future dreams of hanging out with his son and golfing were shattered by the shooting.
“Father’s Day foursome out on the links is something I will never have,” he said.
Schilling saved his heaviest remarks for the shooter, who refused to look up.
“Lock this son of a bitch up for the rest of his life,” he said. “I’d really like to show how much pain I felt. Those bird screams are nothing compared to what I would do with you. You piece of shit.”
