Lawyers representing the father of school shooter Ethan Crumbley have asked a court to change the location of his trial after his estranged wife Jennifer was found guilty of manslaughter.
James Crumbley, 47, is accused of making a gun accessible to his son Ethan Crumbley and failing to obtain mental health care for his son.
The 15-year-old killed four students and injured more during a mass shooting at Oxford High School in 2021.
Judge Cheryl Matthews heard arguments Wednesday in Oakland County Court from his attorneys who say he can’t get a fair trial in the county and whether two students injured in the attack should be allowed to testify against him.
Attorney Mariell Lehman argued that the student’s testimony is irrelevant and unnecessary since a teacher and an assistant principal will testify.
James Crumbley enters the courtroom during his hearing at the Oakland County Courthouse, Wednesday, February 21, 2024, in Pontiac, Michigan
Crumbley, 47, is accused of making a gun accessible to his son Ethan Crumbley and failing to obtain mental health care for his son
Lehman argued, “While I cannot imagine what those students went through, their testimony is not relevant in the case of James Crumbley.
“He is not accused of shooting or injuring anyone. The primary purpose of the testimony is to stir the emotions of the jury.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Keast disagreed, saying the district attorney’s office should not actually appeal to the students.
He said they may need these if other witnesses are unavailable for some reasons.
Defense lawyers have pushed for a change of venue, with Lehman saying in a court filing last week: “They have clearly been convicted in the court of public opinion.”
Jury selection in the father’s trial is scheduled for March 5. It is unusual in Michigan to change the location of a trial or to include jurors from another county.
Hundreds of people will be called into the courthouse as part of the jury selection process. It took about two days to pick a jury for Jennifer Crumbley’s trial.
Jennifer Crumbley was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on February 6, making her the first parent in the US to be held responsible for a child carrying out a mass attack on a school.
Prosecutors said Jennifer Crumbley was more interested in pursuing an extramarital affair with a local firefighter than caring for her son.
After the murders, she texted her lover Brian Meloche that the shooting “could have been prevented” and that the school should not have allowed him to return to class.
James Crumbley is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting, which killed Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre and Hana St. Juliana, and injured seven others.
Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to his crimes and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after killing four classmates during the 2021 Oxford High School shooting
Justin Shilling, 17, (left) and Tate Myre, 16, (right) were two of the four students killed in the senseless shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan
Madisyn Baldwin, 17, (left) and Hana St Juliana, 14, (right) died during the 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit
On the morning of November 30, 2021, school staff became concerned about a violent drawing of a gun, bullet and wounded man, accompanied by desperate phrases, on Ethan Crumbley’s math assignment.
His parents were called to school for a meeting, but they did not take the boy home.
A few hours later, Ethan pulled a gun from his backpack and shot ten students and a teacher. No one had checked the backpack.
The gun was the Sig Sauer 9mm that his father had purchased from him four days earlier. His mother had taken her son to a shooting range that same weekend.
After the shooting, a search of the teen’s home revealed that his room was cluttered, with paper targets from a shooting range on the wall.
An empty bottle of whiskey sat on a table next to his bed. At the time of the attack, he was six years younger than the U.S. legal drinking age.
Jennifer Crumbley (right, with her attorney Shannon Smith) looked stunned as the jury read the guilty verdict, becoming the first parent ever convicted of their child’s school shooting
Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer, were both charged in connection with the shooting
The safe that contained his Sig Sauer pistol was empty on his parents’ bed.
In a separate safe were two other weapons that could be unlocked with the code 0-0-0.
During Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, the court heard she was more interested in an extramarital affair, her horses and a night out on the town than spending time with her son.
Crumbley’s secret lover, local fire chief Brian Meloche, claimed she wanted to meet the morning of the shooting, saying they had been meeting regularly in a parking lot across from her work.
Crumbley told her lover that she had “failed miserably” as a parent after her son was arrested for the murders.
Her son Ethan addressed a packed courtroom after being sentenced to life in prison.
He said, ‘What I did. My actions were the result of what I chose to do. I couldn’t stop myself, I don’t take anything away from anyone who could have stopped me.
Jurors in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Jennifer Crumbley were shown disturbing drawings of her son, a mass shooter
Chilling diary entries also written by Crumbley include drawings of a gun held to a girl’s head
‘They didn’t know and I didn’t tell them what I was planning to do, so they’re not to blame for what I did.
‘I’m a very bad person. I did horrible things that no one should ever do, I lied. I hurt a lot of people, that’s what I did.
“Whatever sentence it is, I intend to get better. I will change, maybe it’s not visible now, but I’m trying.
“All I want is for the people I hurt to have a definitive sense of guilt that justice was done in some capacity.
“Any punishment they ask for, I ask you to impose on me, I want them to be happy and feel safe. I don’t want them to worry another day. I am really sorry. I can’t give it back.’
In a diary, the shooter wrote about his desire to see students suffer and the likelihood that he would spend his life in prison. On the eve of the shooting, he made a video stating what he would do the next day.
Jennifer Crumbley will be sentenced April 9 and faces up to 60 years in prison.