Mass shooter Ethan Crumbley asked his parents for help appealing his life sentence, but they refused to disclose documents that he said would strengthen his case, according to court documents.
Crumbley, who was 15 when he opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan, killing four classmates and injuring seven other people, asked an Oakland County circuit judge on May 10 for pre-sentencing investigation reports used in the involuntary manslaughter trials of Jennifer and James Crumbley that include information about their home and family life.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were found guilty in separate trials this year that for the first time in the U.S. held the parents of a mass school shooter criminally responsible. Both are serving 10 to 15 years in prison.
The records Ethan Crumbley requested would shed light on his upbringing and possible mental state while he was growing up, which could help his appeal, his lawyers said in the May 10 court filing.
But in a response filed on May 14, James Crumbley urged the judge to deny the motion, saying his son could inform his legal team himself about his early home life.
“Counsel has an able bodied client who can advise his own counsel as to his family,” James Crumbley's attorneys said the document, adding that defense lawyers had failed to demonstrate why the information couldn't come directly from his son.
Jennifer Crumbley also filed a motion objecting to her son’s request.
“Mrs. Crumbley has not waived her statutory privilege allowing the disclosure of her pre-sentence report,” according to her May 14 filing in Oakland County Court.
Ethan Crumbley's lawyers, Jacqueline Ouvry and Alison Swain, asked in the filing that the confidential pre-sentencing reports be released under a protective order that would allow the court to review them while withholding them publicly.
A judge could decide on the motion as early as Wednesday.
Attorneys for the three Crumbleys did not respond to requests for comment.
Separately, Ethan Crumbley also has asked the court to consider hearing from lay witnesses — in this case family members who can attest to the home environment he grew up in. Such testimony might allow him to change his guilty plea or have his sentence declared invalid, because introducing it at trial might have prevented him from receiving a life sentence, his lawyers said in court records.
His original defense team didn’t allow lay witnesses during his trial, but his appellate lawyers said in the court records that they plan to present those statements and other pertinent information in the appeal, even though many family members have said they have been harassed by the media and exposed to danger.
Ethan Crumbley's lawyers had asked the court to keep the family members' names under seal. But Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe last week denied the request, contending public interest in the case outweighs any potential harassment.
Rowe was the judge who imposed the maximum sentence on Ethan Crumbley, who pleaded guilty in the shooting, which killed Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.
Crumbley apologized for his actions shortly before sentencing.
“I am a really bad person. I’ve done terrible things that no one should ever do,” he said. “I’ve hurt many people, and that’s what I’ve done, and I’m not denying that, but that’s not who I plan to be.”
