“This case is a very dangerous one for parents out there. She talked about her own family and wondered aloud what her criminal liability would be if one of her kids grabbed a kitchen knife and attacked a friend. It’s about what she knew and what she didn’t say.”ĭefense attorney Shannon Smith began her closing argument in an unusual way. (Staff) did not have any of the information that was so jarring. “But this is Jennifer Crumbley’s actions. “I’m not going to say it’s OK they didn’t look in the backpack,” McDonald said of school staff. No one had checked his backpack for a gun. Ethan returned to class and began shooting later that day. I wish he would have killed us instead,” she testified Thursday.Ī counselor and school administrator both said they urged the parents to get him into mental health care as soon as possible. “I have asked myself if I would have done anything differently. Jennifer Crumbley downplayed it, telling the jury it was “just Ethan messing around.” Yet the Crumbleys didn’t take Ethan home from school and never informed staff about the new gun or hallucinations months earlier when he told his mom about “demons” at the house and clothes “flying off the shelf.” The drawing depicted a gun that resembled the Sig Sauer, a bullet, a wounded person and the lines, “The thoughts won’t stop. The prosecutor pointed out that Jennifer Crumbley texted her husband with the words “emergency” and “I’m very concerned” after the school shared their son’s disturbing drawing and summoned them for a meeting. It was gifted to him and not only was it gifted to him, she bragged about it," McDonald said. “She posted on social media it was (Ethan’s) Christmas gift. She and her son took turns firing the gun and returned home with 50 rounds during the long Thanksgiving weekend. There’s no dispute that James Crumbley, accompanied by Ethan, bought a firearm, and Jennifer Crumbley subsequently purchased 100 rounds of ammunition during a visit to a shooting range. “And not only did she not do it, she doesn’t even regret it.”ĭuring the trial, prosecutors focused on two key events: the purchase of a 9 mm Sig Sauer handgun on Black Friday, four days before the school attack, and a crucial meeting at the school on the morning of the shooting when a teacher discovered a violent drawing on Ethan’s math assignment. “Just the smallest - the smallest - of things could have saved Hana and Tate and Madisyn and Justin,” McDonald said, referring to the four victims by their first names. “It’s going to take unique, egregious, incomprehensible facts - and that’s what we have here,” she said. Under Michigan law, parents have a reasonable obligation to prevent their child from harming or being a risk to others, McDonald told the jury at the close of seven days of testimony. Ethan, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to murder and is serving a life prison sentence for killing four students at Oxford High School on Nov. Jury deliberations for Jennifer Crumbley are scheduled to begin Monday after the judge gives instructions. to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. They’re accused of making a gun accessible at home and not addressing Ethan Crumbley’s mental health. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, and husband James, 47, are charged with involuntary manslaughter. It says, ‘Help me,’” prosecutor Karen McDonald said during final arguments in suburban Detroit. “He literally drew a picture of what he was going to do. – A prosecutor urged jurors on Friday to convict the mother of a Michigan school shooter in a groundbreaking trial that centered on whether she should be held responsible for the deaths of four students, especially when confronted with her son’s violent drawing ahead of the tragedy.
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