Current:Home > FinanceMichigan school shooter’s mother to stand trial for manslaughter in 4 student deaths -Trailblazer Wealth Guides
Michigan school shooter’s mother to stand trial for manslaughter in 4 student deaths
View
Date:2025-04-25 01:51:53
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The mother of a teenager who committed a mass school shooting in Michigan is headed to trial on involuntary manslaughter charges in an unusual effort to pin criminal responsibility on his parents for the deaths of four students.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are not accused of knowing their son planned to kill fellow students at Oxford High School in 2021. But prosecutors said they made a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley, ignored his mental health needs and declined to take him home when confronted with his violent drawings at school on the day of the attack.
Involuntary manslaughter has been “well-defined for ages, and its elements are definite and plain: gross negligence causing death,” assistant prosecutor Joseph Shada said in a court filing.
Jury selection begins Tuesday in Jennifer Crumbley’s trial in Oakland County court, 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Detroit. James Crumbley will face a separate trial in March. In December, Ethan was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes.
It’s a notable case: The Crumbleys are the first parents to be charged in a mass U.S. school shooting. The mother of a 6-year-old Virginia boy who wounded his teacher with a gun was recently sentenced to two years in prison for child neglect.
“I think prosecutors are feeling pressure when these weapon-related offenses occur,” said Eve Brensike Primus, who teaches criminal procedure at the University of Michigan Law School. “People are outraged, and they’re looking for someone to take responsibility for it.”
There’s no dispute that James Crumbley, 47, bought a gun with Ethan at his side four days before the shooting — the teen called it, “my new beauty.” Jennifer Crumbley, 45, took him to a shooting range and described the outing on Instagram as a “mom and son day.”
A day before the shooting, the school informed Jennifer Crumbley that Ethan, who was 15, was looking at ammunition on his phone. “I’m not mad,” she texted him. “You have to learn not to get caught.”
Defense attorneys insist the tragedy was not foreseeable by the parents. They liken the charges to trying to put a “square peg into a round hole.”
“After every school shooting, the media and those affected are quick to point to so-called ‘red flags’ that were missed by those in the shooter’s life,” Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman said in an unsuccessful effort to get the Michigan Supreme Court to dismiss the charges. “But the truth of the matter is one cannot predict the unimaginable.”
At his sentencing, Ethan, now 17, told a judge that he was a “really bad person” who could not stop himself.
“They did not know and I did not tell them what I planned to do, so they are not at fault,” he said of his parents.
A few hours before the shooting, the Crumbleys were summoned to Oxford High School. Ethan had drawn violent images on a math assignment with the message: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
The parents were told to get him into counseling, but they declined to remove him from school and left campus after less than 30 minutes, according to investigators. Ethan had brought a gun from home that day, Nov. 30, 2021, though no one checked his backpack.
The shooter surrendered to police after killing four students and wounding seven more people. The parents were charged a few days later, but they weren’t easy to find. Police said they were hiding in a building in Detroit.
The Crumbleys have been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial, unable to afford a $500,000 bond. Involuntary manslaughter in Michigan carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
___
Follow Ed White at https://twitter.com/edwritez
veryGood! (9)
Related
- Stamford Road collision sends motorcyclist flying; driver arrested
- Bill Maher postpones HBO 'Real Time' return during writers' strike following backlash
- WSJ reporter to appeal Russian detention Tuesday
- Almost 50 children from occupied Ukrainian regions arrive in Belarus, sparking outrage
- Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
- Indiana attorney general sues hospital over doctor talking publicly about 10-year-old rape victim's abortion
- 'Real Housewives' star Shannon Beador arrested for drunk driving, hit-and-run
- New Spain soccer coach names roster made up largely of players who've threatened boycott
- This was the average Social Security benefit in 2004, and here's what it is now
- Unlicensed New York City acupuncturist charged after patient’s lungs collapsed, prosecutors say
Ranking
- North Carolina trustees approve Bill Belichick’s deal ahead of introductory news conference
- Kim Kardashian Proves North West’s New Painting Is a Stroke of Genius
- Canada is investigating whether India is linked to the slaying of a Sikh activist
- A Kenyan military helicopter has crashed near Somalia, and sources say all 8 on board have died
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- Colorado State DB receives death threats for hit on Colorado's Travis Hunter
- United Auto Workers strike could drive up new and used car prices, cause parts shortage
- Monday Night Football highlights: Steelers edge Browns, Nick Chubb injured, Saints now 2-0
Recommendation
'Most Whopper
Horoscopes Today, September 18, 2023
Getting sober saved my life. And helped me understand my identity as a transgender woman.
Ex-Indiana substitute teacher gets 10 months in prison for sending hoax bomb threats to schools, newspaper
Megan Fox's ex Brian Austin Green tells Machine Gun Kelly to 'grow up'
Ray Epps, center of a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory, is charged with a misdemeanor over the Capitol riot
Jada Pinkett Smith Celebrates Her Birthday With a Sherbet Surprise Hair Transformation
Barbie is nearly in the top 10 highest-grossing films in U.S. after surpassing The Avengers at no. 11