Prosecutors urge judge to keep Michigan school shooter's guilty plea and sentence in place

DETROIT — Prosecutors urged a judge Tuesday to reject a Michigan school shooter's request to withdraw his guilty plea in the deaths of four students in 2021.

Ethan Crumbley, 18, is serving a life sentence for the Oxford High School shooting. But his new appellate lawyers want to start over, arguing that he had poor mental health when he waived his right to trial and pleaded guilty to multiple charges at age 16.

The Oakland County prosecutor's office, however, said Crumbley falls far short of the Michigan legal threshold to withdraw a guilty plea.

Crumbley “cannot withdraw his plea merely because he has changed his mind,” assistant prosecutor Joseph Shada said in a court filing.

Shada noted that Crumbley signed a document acknowledging that he had discussed the guilty plea with his lawyers and that any questions were answered.

In a separate filing, prosecutors said Crumbley's life sentence should stand, too. His appellate lawyers want Judge Kwame Rowe to hear new evidence of a turbulent childhood and exposure to alcohol during pregnancy.

Crumbley's “life sentence is proportionate and constitutional, even for an individual who claims to have” fetal alcohol disorder, Shada wrote in opposition.

It's not known when Rowe will make a ruling.

Crumbley was 15 when he brought a gun to school and killed four students and wounded others. Earlier that day his parents were summoned to discuss violent drawings and agonizing phrases written on a math assignment. They didn't take him home, and no one checked his backpack for a gun.

James and Jennifer Crumbley are serving 10-year prison terms for involuntary manslaughter. They were accused of making a gun accessible at home and ignoring their son's mental health.

They were the first U.S. parents to be convicted in a school shooting committed by their child.

Meanwhile, the parents of the students killed at Oxford renewed their public plea Monday for a broad investigation of the shooting. They said it could help Michigan schools keep students safe.