Jurors who convicted Jennifer Crumbley of manslaughter in her son’s school shooting said they felt the “undeniable weight” of their historic verdict and that pleading guilty “immediately… “It was not unanimous,” the jury foreman said in an interview broadcast Wednesday.
“It definitely carried some weight,” said the chief, using only his first name, Alex. He spoke on the “Today” show..
“We all took seriously the responsibility placed upon us. And even though I’m only one of 12 people, we made a very difficult decision,” she said. He spoke about the first conviction against a parent who was held responsible for the incident.
Alex said Crumbley was the last person to handle the gun that his 15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley, used to kill four people at Oxford High School in Michigan on November 30, 2021. He said he was upset.
“I feel like Jennifer didn’t pull her son away from the gun enough that day to save his life,” Alex said.
Still, “it wasn’t immediately unanimous,” she said of the decision by the six-man, six-woman jury.
Ultimately, the director said, it was the mother’s own evidence that swayed her decision.
“Once we got into deliberations, it became clear that she was not a very reliable witness in this case,” said Alex, 45, who had been cheating on her husband while ignoring her son’s obvious need for help. about the marketing director.
One example, she said, is Crumbley’s testimony that he would not have done anything else leading up to the shooting despite obvious warning signs.
“It was repeated over and over again in the deliberation room,” Alex said. “I think it was very upsetting to hear that. I think there were a lot of things that could have been done to prevent this.”
The director also cited text messages between Crumbley and her son (in which the word “love” was mentioned only three times over several years) and the boy’s diary, which detailed mental health issues. did.
“For me personally, it wasn’t as shocking as the evidence that she had a gun, but I know that for my fellow jurors, this notebook played a huge role,” Alex said. .
A jury in Oxford, Michigan, took nearly two days to reach its verdict, which came after a two-week trial, but prosecutors said Crumbley kept a gun near her son and had mental health issues. He claimed to have ignored it.
On the day of the shooting, his parents refused to take him home when shown his violent drawings at school, killing four students, six others and a teacher. was injured.
During cross-examination, prosecutors denied Ms. Crumbley’s claims that she was a “hyper-vigilant helicopter parent” who was “intimate” with her son, saying she was too busy having an intense affair with a married firefighter. She claimed that she was unable to notice her son’s severely disturbed mental state during the affair.
The mother, on the other hand, claimed that it was her husband who decided to buy the gun for her then 15-year-old son to use in the massacre, but admitted that he did not object to the purchase at the time.
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism and was sentenced in December to life in prison without parole.
He is a beloved 16-year-old football star named Tate Myre, a talented artist named Madisyn Baldwin (age 17) who had already been accepted to college, and an avid member of her school’s basketball team, Hannah St. – Killed Juliana (14 years old) and Justin Schilling (17 years old). , a devoted friend and co-captain of the bowling team.
His mother could face up to 15 years in prison on each charge. She is scheduled to be sentenced on April 9th.
Ethan’s father, James Crumbley, will stand trial separately on the same charges at a later date. He pleaded not guilty.
Loved ones of some of the shooting victims told NBC News they hope the ruling will help prevent future tragedies.
“The bleeding has to stop,” said Schilling’s father, Craig Schilling.
“We can’t continue living our lives without knowing if our kids are going to come home from school.”
