Michigan school shooter’s mother to stand trial for manslaughter in 4 student deaths
PONTIAC, MI — The mother of a teenager who carried out a mass shooting at a Michigan school is being tried on charges of involuntary manslaughter in an unusual attempt to hold his parents criminally liable for the deaths of four students.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are not accused of knowing their son planned to kill fellow Oxford High School students in 2021. But prosecutors said they made a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley, ignored his mental health issues and refused to take him home when confronted with his problems. violent drawings at school on the day of the attack.
Involuntary manslaughter “has been clearly defined for centuries and its elements are clear and distinct: gross negligence resulting in death,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Shada said in a court filing.
Jury selection begins Tuesday in Jennifer Crumbley’s trial in Oakland County court, 40 miles north of Detroit. James Crumbley will face a separate trial in March. In December, Ethan was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes.
In a remarkable case, the Crumbleys are the first parents to be charged in connection with a mass shooting at an American school. The mother of a six-year-old Virginia boy who wounded his teacher with a gun was recently sentenced to two years in prison for child neglect.
“I think prosecutors feel pressure when these gun-related crimes occur,” said Eve Brensike Primus, who teaches criminal procedure at the University of Michigan Law School. “People are angry and looking for someone to take responsibility for it.”
There’s no question that James Crumbley, 47, bought a gun with Ethan by his side four days before the shooting — the teen called it “my new beauty.” Jennifer Crumbley, 45, took him to a shooting range and described the outing on Instagram as a “mother and son day.”
A day before the shooting, the school informed Jennifer Crumbley that Ethan, who was 15, was looking at his phone for ammunition. “I’m not mad,” she texted him. “You have to learn not to get caught.”
Defense attorneys insist the tragedy could not have been foreseen by the parents. They liken the accusations to trying to “put a square peg in a round hole.”
“After every school shooting, the media and those affected are quick to point to so-called ‘red flags’ that were missed by those in the shooter’s life,” Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman said in an unsuccessful attempt to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. drag right. to dismiss the charges. “But the truth is you can’t predict the unimaginable.”
At his sentencing, Ethan, now 17, told a judge he was a “really bad person” who couldn’t stop himself.
“They didn’t know and I didn’t tell them what I was planning to do, so they’re not to blame,” he said of his parents.
A few hours before the shooting, the Crumbleys were called to Oxford High School. Ethan had drawn violent pictures in a math assignment with the message: “The thoughts don’t stop. Help me.”
The parents were told to get him into counseling, but they refused to remove him from school and left campus after less than 30 minutes, investigators said. Ethan brought a gun from home that day, November 30, 2021, although no one checked his backpack.
The gunman surrendered to police after killing four students and wounding another seven people. The parents were charged a few days later, but they were not easy to find. Police said they were hiding in a building in Detroit.
The Crumbleys have been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial because they cannot post $500,000 bail. Involuntary manslaughter in Michigan carries a maximum prison sentence of fifteen years.
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