Police: Oxford High School Shooting Suspect Looked Up Ammo In Class; Mom Told Him Not To Get Caught

Teenager Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for gunning down four classmates and wounding six others and a teacher at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021.

As their son’s fate was decided on Friday, Crumbley’s parents await their own criminal trial. Jennifer and James Crumbley have been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. They have pleaded not guilty.

Crumbley’s parents were denied access to attend Friday’s hearing, according to court records.

Prosecutors have said the couple gave their son easy access to a gun and disregarded signs he was a threat. The parents allegedly ignored Crumbley’s request for mental health treatment after the teen said he needed help, according to an opinion written by a panel of judges in March.

The parents have argued the charges have no legal justification and they should not be held responsible for their son’s killings.

James Crumbley purchased the gun used in the shooting just four days before the deadly attack, prosecutors have said.

 

hope the parents get convicted and receive the harshest penalty possible

they really have the nerve to say they shouldn’t be held responsible…

 

Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the teenager who killed four students at an Oxford, Michigan, high school in 2021, was found guilty Tuesday of all four counts of involuntary manslaughter in a novel legal case that stood as a test of the limits of who’s responsible for a school shooting.

The jury of 12 deliberated for more than 10 hours. Jennifer Crumbley looked down at her clasped hands as the verdict was read. She was taken from the courtroom in shackles.

Crumbley, 45, had pleaded not guilty to the charges in the November 30, 2021, mass shooting at Oxford High School, in which four students were killed and six students and a teacher were wounded. She faces up to 15 years in prison, and her sentencing hearing was set for April 9. She has been behind bars since her arrest in a Detroit warehouse days after the shooting.

The prosecution argued Jennifer Crumbley is responsible for the deaths because she was “grossly negligent” in giving a gun to her son Ethan, who was 15 at the time, and failing to get him proper mental health treatment despite warning signs. Over a week of testimony, law enforcement officials, school employees, shooting victims and those who knew Jennifer Crumbley testified for the prosecution.


“It’s a rare case that takes some really egregious facts,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in closing arguments Friday. “It takes the unthinkable, and she has done the unthinkable, and because of that, four kids have died.”

However, the defense argued the blame lay elsewhere: on her husband for improperly securing the firearm; on the school for failing to notify her about her son’s behavioral issues; and on Ethan himself, who planned and carried out the attack on his own. Defense attorney Shannon Smith said the case was “dangerous” for parents everywhere.

“Can every parent really be responsible for everything their children do, especially when it’s not foreseeable?” Smith said in closing arguments.

Jennifer Crumbley took the stand in her own defense and, in a remarkable moment, expressed no regret for her actions.

“I’ve asked myself if I would have done anything differently, and I wouldn’t have,” she testified.

Closing arguments took place Friday. The judge instructed the jury on the law Monday morning and deliberations followed.

Broadly, the prosecution’s case relied on an unusual and novel legal strategy and represented an attempt to expand the scope of blame in mass shootings.

love this decision

 

I love it

James Crumbley, the father of the teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school in 2021, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in a trial that comes a month after the shooter’s mother was convicted of the same charges.

James Crumbley was convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter, a charge that carries a maximum punishment of up to 15 years in prison, which would run concurrently.

The cases against the shooter’s parents stood as a test of the limits of who’s responsible for a school shooting.

Prosecutors in closing arguments Wednesday said James Crumbley was “grossly negligent” because he bought a SIG Sauer 9mm gun for his son days before the attack, failed to properly secure it, ignored his son’s deteriorating mental health and did not take “reasonable care” to prevent foreseeable danger.

Parents have previously faced liability for their child’s actions, such as with neglect or firearms charges, but Jennifer Crumbley’s guilty verdict was the first time a school shooter’s parent was held directly responsible for the killings. She is set to be sentenced on April 9.

 

James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the teenager who killed four students in the 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were each sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 15 years in prison, weeks after being convicted of manslaughter.