PONTIAC, MI — A Michigan jury was set to resume deliberations Thursday in a trial that will determine whether another parent will be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by a teenage son.
The jury heard closing arguments in a suburban Detroit courtroom and convened for about 90 minutes Wednesday before going home without a verdict in the involuntary manslaughter trial of James Crumbley.
Crumbley, 47, is the father of Ethan Crumbley, the 15-year-old boy who took a gun from home and killed four students at Oxford High School on November 30, 2021.
During a five-day trial, prosecutors showed that the weapon, a newly acquired Sig Sauer 9mm, was not safely secured in Crumbley’s home.
Although Michigan had no storage law at the time, James Crumbley had a legal duty to protect others from possible harm by his son, prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
The case, she said, was about more than just access to a gun.
Ethan’s mental state deteriorated on the day of the shooting: he drew a macabre drawing of a gun and a wounded man for a math assignment, adding, “The thoughts don’t stop.” Help me. Blood everywhere. The world is dead.”
But the parents refused to take Ethan home after a brief meeting at school, only accepting a list of mental health providers when they returned to work. They did not tell school staff that a gun similar to the one in the drawing had been purchased by James Crumbley just four days earlier.
A few hours later, Ethan took the gun out of his backpack and started shooting. No one had checked the bag.
Parents are not responsible for everything their children do, but “this is a very egregious and rare set of facts,” McDonald told the jury.
In a dramatic move, the prosecutor demonstrated how to use a cable to lock the gun used in the shooting. The cable was found unused in a package at Crumbley’s home.
“Ten seconds,” McDonald told the judges, “of the easiest, simplest thing.”
The Oxford victims were Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are the first American parents charged with responsibility for a mass school shooting by a child. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last month.
Earlier in November 2021, Ethan wrote in his diary that he needed help for his mental health “but my parents don’t listen to me, so I can’t get help.”
In her closing remarks, defense attorney Mariell Lehman said James Crumbley did not know Ethan knew where to find the gun at home. She said school officials seemed more concerned that he was harming himself, rather than others.
“They saw images that were not concerning, that were common, and that other kids wrote and drew about,” Lehman said of the boy’s tortured drawing on the math paper. “The concern was that he was sad and needed to talk to someone.”
James Crumbley “had no idea” his son was capable of mass shootings, she said.
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, is serving a life sentence for murder and terrorism.
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