On November 30, 2021, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley loaded a gun into his backpack, went to Michigan’s Oxford High School, and shot dead four of his fellow students.
The semi-automatic handgun he used was purchased with the help of his parents as an early Christmas present.
James Crumbley, 47, and his wife Jennifer Crumbley, 45, now find themselves facing four counts each of involuntary manslaughter.
In what NBC News calls “a rare attempt to hold the parents of a school shooter criminally responsible,” the Crumbleys will be tried separately. Jury selection is set to begin on Tuesday in Oakland County.
Whether the parents’ separate trials will be held simultaneously or one after the other remains unclear. If one trial will follow the other, it is also unknown which parent would go first. If convicted, each faces up to 15 years in prison and a $7,500 fine per charge.
Jeffrey Swartz, a former Florida county judge and a Cooley Law School professor, predicts the parents will waste no time blaming each other for their son’s deadly deeds.
“The Crumbleys are not going to contest that their son was guilty,” Swartz told NBX News. “If I’m projecting in this particular case, each parent is going to point the finger at the other. Which one knew about Ethan’s problems, who was responsible for hiding and securing the gun?”
If the trials are held consecutively, the parent who is tried second will have the advantage, Swartz said, as their defense attorney will have the ability to analyze what did and didn’t work in the first trial.
As BizPac Review reported, Ethan, now 17, was charged as an adult. He pleaded guilty to the many charges against him, including terrorism and first-degree murder. He is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
“I am a really bad person,” Ethan told the judge at his sentencing. “I have done some terrible things that no one should ever do. I have lied and I’m not trustworthy. I hurt many people.”
‘I am a bad person’: Michigan school shooter addresses court before being sentenced https://t.co/Xvfc8HDK6w via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) December 9, 2023
According to NBC News, “The involuntary manslaughter charge hinges on the prosecution convincing a jury that each parent played a role in the deaths and that they were the result of unlawful negligence, although neither parent intended for people to die.”
It was James Crumbley who purchased the 9 mm Sig Sauer for his son on the day after Thanksgiving in 2021, prosecutors said. But when Oxford High School officials phoned the Crumbley home three days later to say a teacher saw Ethan, then a sophomore, searching the internet for ammunition, it was his mother who ignored the call.
“Lol. I’m not mad at you,” Jennifer texted Ethan. “You have to learn not to get caught.”
According to authorities, it was on that night that Ethan recorded a video of himself planning the school attack.
NBC News reports:
The following day, a teacher said she found a note on his desk with a drawing of a gun and a person who was shot, and messages including, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” Ethan Crumbley was sent to meet with a school counselor, and he explained the drawing was done as part of a video game design, school officials said. But his parents were called to a meeting that same day; counselors observing him would later say they didn’t believe he was going to engage in any violence based on his demeanor.
School officials said the Crumbleys were told at the meeting that they were required to get him counseling within 48 hours or the school would contact Children’s Protective Services. The parents declined a request to take their son home, prosecutors said, and officials permitted him to remain in school.
Ethan would go on to murder fellow students, Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.
MI school shooter Ethan Crumbley exhibits ‘sporadic, disturbing behavior’ ahead of July sentencing https://t.co/cSkcgCMg59 via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) June 25, 2023
It was James who called 911 when news of the deadly attack broke. He told authorities he believed his son could be the shooter.
Neither James nor Jennifer mentioned Ethan’s newly purchased gun when they were told about the drawing, an omission that, days later, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald would call “unconscionable.”
“The notion that a parent could read those words and also know their son had access to a deadly weapon, that they gave him, is unconscionable, and I think it’s criminal,” McDonald said during a news conference.
Proving that the Crumbleys were negligent in permitting their son to access the gun will be difficult, according to Swartz.
Whether the weapon was locked up or not — a fact that has been disputed by Ethan — is irrelevant as Michigan’s law requiring gun owners with minors in the house to store firearms in a locked safe didn’t go into effect until this year, long after the teen’s deadly rampage.
“In order to be guilty of involuntary manslaughter, you have to prove that there was a legal duty that was breached,” Swartz said. “Where was their legal duty?”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.