(WXYZ) — Ethan Crumbley, the alleged mass school shooter at Oxford High School, pleaded guilty to 24 charges including one count of terrorism and four counts of first-degree murder.
The guilty plea would eliminate the need for a criminal trial.
“I just feel like this is one less thing we have to worry about,” Nicole Beausoleil, the mother of one of his victims Madisyn Baldwin said.
She says she plans on being in the courtroom and is relieved that there could potentially not be a long trail. But she does fear that this move could be his defense team trying to lower his sentence of life behind bars without parole.
"I don't know if this is a plea for him to get reduced sentencing. I pray he does not. I will speak. Voice my opinion about how I feel about him and what he's done to our family. I have a feeling a lot of other families will do the same," she said.
Attorney Todd Flood represents the family of another victim who was shot but survived. He says given Michigan's changes to juvenile lifer laws, the prosecutors may have a difficult task trying to get life without parole.
"This will be a battle of experts. A psychiatrist on the stand with a forensic review, and by the prosecution that has the burden," Flood said.
Beausoleil says life without parole should be the only option.
“Those kids didn’t get choices or chances that day. He didn’t allow that, so what makes it that he is allowed a second chance,” she said.
