Ethan Crumbley, the 16-year-old accused of killing four students in a shooting at a Michigan high school last year, pleaded guilty to all charges against him on Monday.
Driving the news: Crumbley, who was charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to 24 charges, which include four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism causing death for the Nov. 30 shooting.
- The courtroom on Monday was filled with family members and relatives of victims of the shooting, some of whom were weeping as assistant prosecutor Marc Keast detailed the crimes, AP reports.
- "Is it your own choice to plead guilty?" Oakland County Circuit Judge Kwame Rowe asked Crumbley, per the Detroit Free Press.
- "Yes sir," he said.
- "Is it true that you intended to cause panic and fear," the prosecutor asked him.
- "Yes," Crumbley said, per the Detroit paper.
The big picture: A first-degree murder conviction in Michigan usually brings an automatic life prison sentence, but a teenager's lawyer can argue for a shorter term, per AP.
- Four students were killed and seven others were wounded in the shooting at Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan.
What they're saying: "Ethan Crumbley’s guilty plea is one small step forward on a long path towards obtaining full justice for our clients," said Attorney Ven Johnson, who is representing some of the families in the civil lawsuit against Ethan Crumbley and his parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley.
- "We will continue to fight until the truth is revealed about what went wrong leading up to this tragedy, and who, including Crumbley’s parents and multiple Oxford Community Schools employees, could have and should have prevented it," Johnson said in a statement.
