Oxford School Shooter: Latest Updates As Case Moves Towards Trial

On Friday, the alleged Oxford school shooter and his parents each faced their own hearing.

15-year-old sophomore Ethan Crumbley has been accused of killing four students and injuring seven others at Oxford High School on November 30.

His parents, James Crumbley and Jennifer Crumbley, are each being charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

All three members of the Crumbley family are being held at the Oakland County Jail. They all appeared virtually in court on Friday for separate hearings.

Ethan Crumbley waved his right to a preliminary examination hearing at a probable cause conference on Friday morning.

Judge Nancy Carniak bound him to a circuit court for his trial; the date of which will be determined by the circuit court.

Crumbley is facing twenty-four charges: four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder, twelve counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and one count of terrorism causing death, which is almost unheard of in a school shooting.

Although Crumbley was denied bond when a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf, the matter is expected to be raised again in the coming weeks.

On Friday afternoon, the Crumbley couple failed to get their bonds reduced. Their bond was set at $500,000 dollars after the couple failed to show up for their arraignment on December 3. A manhunt was started for the couple, who was found in an art studio owned by a friend in Detroit. The couple had withdrawn $4,000 dollars from an ATM and turned off their cell phones before fleeing.

Despite their attorney asserting that they do not pose a flight risk, the judge decided to keep the bond as is. As part of their argument against lowering the bond, prosecutors also revealed new evidence against the couple.

Oakland County prosecutors have accused Ethan Crumbley’s parents of ignoring warning signs that their son was struggling. During Friday’s hearing, the prosecutors alleged that Ethan would text his mother when he was home alone, saying that there were ghosts or demons in the house.

Prosecutors previously alleged that Ethan used to keep a baby bird’s head in a jar on his bedroom floor. He later reportedly brought that bird’s head to school with him and left it in the school’s restroom.

During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors allege that they also found videos on Ethan’s phone of animal torture. Ethan reportedly filmed these videos himself. Prosecutors also allege that he made Molotov cocktails at home.

According to another prosecutor, “A second notebook found – not hidden, but in plain view – in the family home depicted pictures of firearms on literally every page.”

Prosecutors added that both parents did not properly lock up their weapons, saying, “We know that because there was a video recovered from Ethan Crumbley’s phone from August of 2021 with him holding James Crumbley’s 22-caliber pistol in one hand. Bullets in the magazine and in the chamber. He sent messages to a friend, ‘It’s time to shoot up the school jk jk jk.’ Again, they failed to provide any type of intervention. Instead, they bought him what he desperately wanted, a 9mm Sig Sauer handgun.”

“All of this was happening while Ethan Crumbley was planning to commit a mass murder,” he continued. “He wrote pages and pages about what he was going to do in his journal. He filmed a video of what he was going to do. He shot that video at the family home.”

“He stopped doing schoolwork and was surprised when his parents didn’t seem to notice or care,” he added.

In addition, prosecutors allege that Ethan Crumbley searched “school shootings” and “firearms” so often that the Internet started feeding ads into his phone and Internet searches for mental healthcare and for firearms purchases.

Three students were declared dead at the scene of the shooting: Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14. Justin Shilling, 17, passed away from his injuries in the hospital the morning after the shooting.