PONTIAC, MI — Prosecutors who say the mother of a Michigan school shooter is partially responsible for the deaths of four students told the jury Thursday that the tragedy could have easily been prevented when she was confronted with his violent drawings just hours earlier.
Jennifer Crumbley was aware of her son’s deteriorating mental health and knew that a gun drawn during a math assignment was similar to the weapon Ethan Crumbley had used at a shooting range, Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast said.
But instead of taking the boy home after he was called to a meeting, Jennifer and husband James Crumbley allowed him to stay at Oxford High School, where he killed four students and injured them hours later.
“Even though she didn’t pull the trigger, she is responsible for these deaths,” Keast said in his opening statement.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 30, 2021, attack. The case against her and her husband, who will go on trial in March, marks the first time a parent has been charged in a mass shooting at a U.S. school . Prosecutors say the Crumbleys were grossly negligent and that their son’s actions were foreseeable.
Keast focused on two major themes: access to a gun in the Crumbley house and the school assembly on the day of the shooting, when a teacher was alarmed by the teen’s drawing and the phrase, “The thoughts don’t stop.” Help me. “
“The two people with all the information, all the background to put this drawing into context were James and Jennifer Crumbley,” Keast said. “They didn’t share any of it.”
Defense attorney Shannon Smith told jurors that the evidence of the shooting “will make you sick and disgusted.” But she said Jennifer Crumbley was manipulated by her son and it wasn’t her fault.
Jennifer Crumbley, who will testify in her own defense, was a “hyper-vigilant mother who cared more about her son than anything in the world,” Smith said.
“Band-aids don’t stop bullet holes,” she said, quoting a Taylor Swift song. “That’s what this case is about: the plaintiff trying to put a Band-Aid on problems that can’t be solved with a Band-Aid.”
Ethan Crumbley, 17, was sentenced to life in prison in December after pleading guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes. He was 15 when the shooting occurred.
The teen’s parents have been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial and cannot post $500,000 bail. Involuntary manslaughter in Michigan carries a maximum prison sentence of fifteen years.
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