PONTIAC, MI — A jury on Thursday found a man guilty of manslaughter in connection with the 2021 school shooting of his teenage son, joining his wife who was convicted on the same charge last month. was lowered.
Jury decision around 10am After several hours of deliberation, a landmark case in which parents of school shootings were held criminally responsible for the first time in the United States has been resolved. Ethan, the son of James and Jennifer Crumbley, was 15 when he opened fire at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit, but he pleaded guilty as an adult and was sentenced in December to life in prison without parole. .
“The gross negligence of the shooter's parents resulted in the deaths of four children,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement after the verdict.
James Crumbley, 47, faces up to 15 years in prison on four counts of manslaughter, each representing a student who was killed. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, is scheduled to be sentenced in April.
Prosecutors say James Crumbley gave Ethan a 9mm Sig Sauer as a gift the day after Thanksgiving, during a difficult time in Ethan's life when his best friend moved away and he was suffering emotionally. He announced that he had bought it. Crumbley is not accused of having prior knowledge of the attack, which his son had warned about in his diary.
The cases against husband and wife largely mirrored each other, with many of the same witnesses testifying in both trials, but prosecutors did not delve too deeply into James Crumbley's social or professional life. The testimony lasted less than a week, and Crumbley, like Jennifer Crumbley, did not take the stand in her own defense.
But his actions leading up to and on the day of the school shooting played an important role. School officials testified that the Crumbleys were called to Oxford High School that morning about their son's drawing of a gun and a person being shot. His parents did not tell school officials that he had access to a weapon, and he said he had work and could not take him home that day.
Computer crime experts said James Crumbley only started working for DoorDash delivery after the meeting, and when he started taking orders, he drove past the family's home four times. He testified that he had passed by. The prosecution has suggested that they had a chance to see what was inside the gun and make sure it was secure.
Crumbley later told investigators that he hid a 9mm handgun in a cupboard and kept the ammunition under his jeans in another drawer.
Ethan Crumbley ends up murdering four more students. Madisyn Baldwin, 17 years old. Tate Mire, 16 years old. and Hannah St. Juliana, 14 years old.
In Wednesday's closing argument, Prosecutor McDonald He said the death would have been “preventable and foreseeable” had Crumbley made some “tragic little effort” and said parents are also responsible, regardless of whether their child planned the mass shooting. He tried to weaken the defense's position by telling jurors that he could be a gun owner.
Still, McDonald said the case was unusual and the circumstances surrounding it prompted prosecutors to file a manslaughter charge.
“This lawsuit is not a statement about guns. This is not a statement about parental responsibility. This is not a lawsuit about kids doing kid things,” she said.
Most of the jurors in Crumbley's trial are parents who own guns, grew up around guns, or have family members or friends who own guns. It highlights just how common exposure to firearms is in this hunting-prone part of Michigan.
Defense attorney Mariel Lehman said in closing arguments that prosecutors needed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and that Crumbley knew his son was a danger to the public and had access to guns. He said he had not presented any evidence that this was the case.
“But you didn't see it because it's not true,” Lehman said. “James didn't know. That might be a fair question.”
James Crumbley's trial proceeded more quickly than his wife's, with the prosecution presenting 21 witnesses, compared to 15 in James Crumbley's trial. Prosecutors initially expanded their list of witnesses to include the student who survived the shooting and the original owner of the 9mm handgun, but ultimately stopped short of calling them to testify.
Prosecutors in the mother's case focused on Jennifer Crumbley's perceived parenting failures and how she seemed to ignore her son's emotional distress in favor of hobbies and extramarital affairs. was.
During James Crumbley's trial, prosecutors told jurors that although Michigan has a safe gun storage law that went into effect this year, underage children “pose an unreasonable risk of harm to others.” It is our legal duty as parents to prevent this.” ”
Testimony in James Crumbley's trial began last Thursday. The same day, Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews ordered that his attorney, legitimate clergy, or tablet for research purposes be removed after he allegedly made “threatening statements” about an undisclosed case. signed a court order revoking his jail cell phone and electronic messages, except for use of . Nature.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said after the verdict that the Crumbleys showed “tragic inaction” before the shooting.
“if [your] When you hear that there has been a shooting at your child's school, your first thought may be, “Is he going to be okay?” But if you're worried about whether your son is the culprit, or rushing home to see if the gun you irresponsibly left unsecured is still there, you should do something beforehand. I should have done it,” Bouchard said.
Serena Guevara reported from Pontiac and Eric Ortiz reported from New York.