Ethan Crumbley’s parents were sentenced Tuesday to at least 10 years in prison for failing to stop their son from killing four students at a Michigan school in 2021, and the victim’s family said his He lashed out at his parents.
“In exchange for quality time and care, we’re giving him a gun,” said Reina St. Juliana, sister of 14-year-old slain student Hana St. Juliana.
Reyna spoke in a courtroom in Pontiac, Michigan, before her parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison by Judge Cheryl Matthews.
His parents failed to intervene, including ignoring Ethan’s obvious mental health issues and not keeping a gun in their home, before their son carried out the deadly assault at Oxford High School on November 30, 2021. He was found guilty of manslaughter for contributing to this.
“I don’t think your actions can be described as a failure,” the sisters said, turning to Crumbley’s parents. “Your mistake created our eternal nightmare.”
The four murdered teens had a total of six family members, including Justin Schilling, 17. Madisyn Baldwin, 17 years old. and 16-year-old Tate Myre asked Judge Matthews to toss the book on the Crumbley family, often tearing up as they detailed the terrible toll this tragedy had taken on their lives.
Steve St. Juliana, Rayna and Hana’s father, said losing his daughter “destroyed a huge part of my soul.”
“I’m still a shell of my former self,” the father continued. “I always think of her and miss her. Every day is a battle.”
Steve said James, 47, and Jennifer, 46, “enabled my son to murder my daughter and three other children.”
“They chose to remain silent and chose to ignore the warning signs,” he said. “They keep blaming everyone but themselves.”
Baldwin’s mother, Nicole Beausoleil, wept in a lengthy statement, blaming the Crumbleys for all the suffering they had caused.
“You decided you didn’t want to parent or listen to my son, so you immediately took away my right to be a mother,” she said.
In two trials earlier this year, jurors heard that on the morning of the shooting, staff members had attacked Ethan’s math assignments with violent attacks, including guns, bullets and a man with blood on his face, saying the words “There’s blood.” They heard testimony about how the Claramburys were called to the school after discovering the painting. and “I can’t stop thinking, please help me.”
They refused to take Ethan, then 15, home despite being encouraged to do so by the school.
The school didn’t claim it, but authorities didn’t know at the time that the Crumbleys had bought their son a gun just four days earlier. And his parents never bothered to search Ethan’s backpack, which contained a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol.
“The blood of our children is on your hands,” Schilling’s father, Hank Schilling, told James and Jennifer multiple times in a statement.
Schilling’s mother, Jill Soave, said the Crumbleys’ failure had “irreversible, devastating and fatal consequences.”
Before handing down the maximum sentences to James and Jennifer, Matthews acknowledged the “immeasurable grief” of the victims’ families and said he wondered “if they will ever smile again.”
The legal scholar then held the couple responsible for their son’s “disastrous” choices and for “acts and lack of actions that could have stopped the oncoming runaway train.”
Jennifer and James expressed sympathy for the victim’s family but tried to shift the blame, claiming they had no idea their son was capable of killing.
Ethan, now 17, is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to murder and terrorism charges.
