Michigan school shooter's father convicted of manslaughter
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[March 15, 2024]
By Brad Brooks
(Reuters) - A Michigan jury on Thursday convicted the father of a
teenager who fatally shot four classmates at a high school near Detroit
of manslaughter after prosecutors argued he bore responsibility because
he and his wife gave their son a gun and ignored warning signs of
violence.
James Crumbley, 47, was found guilty in his trial, carried out a month
after his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, was found guilty on manslaughter
charges stemming from the shooting. James Crumbley faced four counts of
involuntary manslaughter, one for each of the victims at Oxford High
School in the 2021 shootings. Jurors began deliberating on Wednesday.
Both James and Jennifer Crumbley will be sentenced on April 9.
Manslaughter carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
The Crumbley's son, Ethan, was 15 at the time of the shooting at Oxford
High School involving a semi-automatic handgun. He pleaded guilty in
2022 to four counts of first-degree murder and other charges and was
sentenced to life in prison without parole in December.
The U.S., a country with persistent gun violence, has experienced a
series of school shootings over the years, often carried out by current
or former students. The Crumbleys were the first parents to be charged
with manslaughter in a child's school shooting.
"This is a very egregious and rare, rare set of facts," Oakland County,
Michigan, prosecutor Karen McDonald told the jury during closing
arguments on Wednesday.
McDonald said James Crumbley repeatedly ignored warning signs that his
son was deeply disturbed, did not get him the help he needed, and did
not do enough to safely store the firearm in the family home.
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"He did nothing over and over and over again," McDonald said.
McDonald also presented the jury with texts that Ethan Crumbley had sent
to a friend and journal entries he had written in the months leading up
to the shooting, in which he talked about wanting medical attention and
hearing voices, but he was worried his parent would be "pissed."
On one occasion, according to a text message to a friend, McDonald said
that Ethan had asked James Crumbley to take him to the doctor, but his
dad "gave me some pills and told me to suck it up."
Defense attorney Mariell Lehman argued that James Crumbley could not
have possibly foreseen that his son would carry out a mass shooting.
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![](../images/031524PIX/news_o30.jpg)
James Crumbley, parent of accused Oxford High School gunman Ethan
Crumbley, is escorted into the courtroom by a Oakland Count Sheriff
during a court procedural hearing in Rochester Hills, Michigan,
U.S., February 24, 2022. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2019/Sep/05/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png)
"James had no idea that his son was having a hard time," Lehman told
jurors during her closing argument, saying no evidence had been
presented that James knew the contents of his son's text messages or
journal.
'HELP ME'
Gun safety experts have said they hope the Crumbley trials serve as
a wake-up call for parents to better secure weapons in their homes.
About 75% of school shooters obtained the guns used in attacks from
their own homes, according to government research.
According to prosecutors, James Crumbley purchased the handgun used
in the attack four days before the Nov. 30, 2021, shootings. On the
morning of the shootings, a teacher discovered drawings by Ethan
Crumbley that depicted a handgun, a bullet and a bleeding figure
next to the words "Blood everywhere," "My life is useless," and "The
thoughts won't stop - help me."
The Crumbleys, summoned to the school that morning, were told that
Ethan needed counseling and they needed to take him home, according
to prosecutors. But the couple resisted taking their son home and
did not search his backpack or ask him about the gun, prosecutors
said.
Both of the Crumbleys challenged that account in their trials,
saying that teachers in the meeting mutually agreed that Ethan could
remain in school that day, and that at no point did they think he
posed a danger to fellow students.
Ethan Crumbley was returned to class and later walked out of a
bathroom with the gun and began firing, according to prosecutors.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Longmont, Colorado; editing by Donna
Bryson and Leslie Adler)
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