The mother of a Michigan school shooter will go to trial on charges of manslaughter in an unprecedented effort to hold the parents criminally responsible for the deaths of four students.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are not accused of knowing their son planned to kill other students at Oxford High School in 2021.
But prosecutors say they kept Ethan Crumbley near guns, ignored his mental health needs and refused to take him home when he was shown violent drawings of him at school on the day of the attack. said.
Manslaughter has been “long and clearly defined, and its elements are clear and unequivocal: death caused by gross negligence,” Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Shada said in a court filing.
On Tuesday, jury selection moved slowly in the trial of 45-year-old Jennifer Crumbley. Hundreds of people were summoned to court in Oakland County, 40 miles north of Detroit. It's a huge group meant to count people who might be exempt for reasons such as anti-gun sentiment or highly publicized tragedies.
“The question is can we be fair and impartial,” Judge Cheryl Matthews told the first group of 50 people.
James Crumbley, 47, is scheduled for another trial in March.
In December, Ethan pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes and was sentenced to life in prison.
This is a remarkable incident. The Crumbleys are the first parents charged in connection with a school shooting in the United States.
The mother of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who shot and wounded his teacher was recently sentenced to two years in prison for child neglect.
“I think prosecutors feel the pressure when these weapons-related crimes occur,” said Eve Brenske Primus, who teaches criminal procedure law at the University of Michigan School of Law.
“People are outraged and looking for someone to hold them accountable.”
There is no dispute that James Crumbley purchased a gun with Ethan by his side four days before the shooting. The boy called it “my new beauty.” Jennifer Crumbley took him to the shooting range and described the outing on Instagram as a “mother-son day.”
The day before the shooting, the school notified Jennifer Crumbley that 15-year-old Ethan had seen ammunition on his cell phone. “I'm not mad,” she texted him.
“You have to learn not to get caught.”
The defense has argued that the parents could not have foreseen the killing. They liken the charges to trying to “insert a square peg into a round hole.”
“Every time there is a school shooting, the media and victims are quick to point out the so-called 'red flags' that were overlooked in the shooter's life,” wrote Shannon Smith and Mariel Lehman, Michigan He said his appeal to the state Supreme Court was unsuccessful. Drop the charges.
“But the truth of the matter is that you can't predict what you can't imagine.”
At his sentencing, Ethan, now 17, told the judge he was a “really bad person” who couldn't stop himself.
“They didn't know and I didn't tell them what I was going to do, so they're not responsible,” he said of his parents.
Hours before the shooting, the Crumbley family was called to Oxford High School.
Ethan drew a violent picture for a math assignment and wrote a message that read: help me. “
Investigators say his parents were told to take him to counseling, but they refused to remove him from school and left campus within 30 minutes.
On that day, November 30, 2021, Ethan brought a gun from his home, but no one checked his backpack.
The gunman killed four students and injured seven more before surrendering to police.
The parents were indicted a few days later, but finding them wasn't easy.
Police said they were hiding in a building in Detroit.
The Crumbleys cannot afford $500,000 bail and have been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial.
Manslaughter in Michigan is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
