(Source: MIRS.news, Published 08/1/2023) A jail video of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley being strapped to a chair with a mask over his face shows “a child in the throes of psychosis,” a psychologist testified Tuesday.
In that video, Crumbley, who pleaded guilty to murdering four high school students in November 2021, asks: “Why didn’t you save her? “Why didn’t you stop it; you let it happen.” “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please God.” “You could’ve stopped it God but you didn’t stop it.”
The video was shown Tuesday during a Miller hearing for Crumbley that will end with Oakland County Judge Kwamé Rowe deciding whether the teen will be sentenced to a term of years – with a minimum of at least 25 years – or life in prison without parole.
The defense rested its case Tuesday, but the prosecution wants to call one more witness, so the hearing continues Aug. 18.
The shooting left four students – Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17 – dead and seven others injured.
Psychologist/counselor Colin King, who is an expert in traumatic brain injury, said that jail video of Crumbley is “exactly how psychosis works.”
King testified that he administered 15 psychological assessments over six sessions to Crumbley “to see what his brain was like” and that the teen’s issues date back to age 6 when he was left unattended by his parents. He said the boy would spend hours watching adult games like Grand Theft Auto, and he spent an “inordinate” amount of time “indulging in various graphic scenes” that led him to fantasize about being part of the scene.
“He sort of lost track of reality,” the psychologist testified about Crumbley, who he said expected his backpack to be searched when he was called to the principal’s office and his parents were called to school that fatal day.
King testified that Crumbley felt “for the first time in his life … relieved” because he believed sheriff’s deputies would “burst into the office and arrest him.” However, he said, the school administrator mishandled the moment.
Neither school personnel nor Crumbley’s parents checked his backpack and his parents chose not to take him out of school that day.
King said Crumbley felt isolation and neglect before the fatal Nov. 30, 2021, shooting, and the psychologist placed responsibility on the lack of parental support and lack of guidance, noting that “psychologically and socially (Crumbley) can be considered a feral child.”
King cited text messages from Crumbley’s parents, who are charged with manslaughter in connection to the mass shooting. Among those text messages, he said, was Crumbley’s mother admitting that she gave him Melatonin instead of Xanax.
“The part that stood out for me was when he told his parents that he was hearing voices and he needed to see a therapist,” King testified. “I don’t know what 15-year-old raises his hand and says, ‘My brain hurts, I need to see a therapist.’ And it never happened.”
King, who said he believes Crumbley can be rehabilitated, concluded that Crumbley was not faking psychotic symptoms and he diagnosed Crumbley with major depressive disorder with psychosis and acute anxiety disorder. He said he believes Crumbley was mentally ill the day of the shooting.
On cross examination, Chief Assistant Prosecutor David W. Williams hammered King about details in his reports, which the psychologist described as evolving as he continues to review materials in the case.
Williams also questioned whether King believed Crumbley was criminally insane, repeating the question before King admitted, “I don’t think so.”
“I believe he’s mentally ill and his mental illness played a factor into the events of the shooting,” King said.
In testimony Thursday and Friday, the judge heard from two students who witnessed the shootings as well as an assistant principal and a detective.
The courtroom also heard that Crumbley described how he would carry out the mass shooting, saying he would “open fire on everyone in the hallway.”
