In a landmark legal case, the mother of a Michigan high school gunman has been found guilty for failing to stop him from shooting four students dead.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, had pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the November 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School.
A jury found the mom of Ethan Crumbley guilty of all counts on Tuesday afternoon after deliberating for more than 10 hours. She appeared to show no emotion as the verdict was read in Oakland County court.
Jennifer is the first parent in US history to be convicted in a mass shooting carried out by their child. The verdict potentially opens the door for parents of young shooters in the future to be charged.
She faces up to 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors argued that she is responsible for the students’ deaths for being ‘grossly negligent’ in providing then-15-year-old Ethan with a gun. They said she did not give him proper mental health treatment when he displayed warning signs.
‘It’s a rare case that takes some really egregious facts,’ said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald during closing arguments on Friday. ‘It takes the unthinkable, and she has done the unthinkable, and because of that, four kids have died.’
The defense team had argued that Ethan, Jennifer’s husband who did not secure the gun, and the school failing to notify her about her son’s behavioral red flags were to blame.
‘Can every parent really be responsible for everything their children do, especially when it’s not foreseeable?’ said defense attorney Shannon Smith during closing arguments.
Smith added that the case was ‘dangerous’ for parents.
But Jennifer shockingly expressed no regret when she took the stand.
‘I’ve asked myself if I would have done anything differently,’ she said, ‘And I wouldn’t have.’
Jennifer’s trial exposed her private life including her affair with a fire captain and that she recruited people for hotel sex parties around the time of the massacre.
Her sentencing is slated for April 9.
Ethan, now 17, last year pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism causing death and four counts of murder, as well as 19 other charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting that also left six students and a teacher wounded.
Jennifer’s husband, James Crumbley, faces the same charges as her and will be tried separately in March. He has pleaded not guilty. The couple purchased the firearm days before Ethan used it in the massacre.
Evidence presented in Jennifer’s trial included diary entries by Ethan in which he wrote, ‘My parents won’t listen to me about help or therapist’, and, ‘I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the f****** school’.
Craig Shilling, whose 17-year-old son Justin Shilling was killed in the shooting, told WXYZ that ‘it was a long time coming, but it’s definitely a step towards accountability that we’ve been talking about’.
‘It’s kind of been our goal the whole time,’ he said.
While some experts believe Jennifer’s case may lead to more parents possibly being charged in future massacres, others disagree.
‘I don’t fear that this is going to open the floodgates to parents being charged in a run of the mill case,’ said University of Michigan clinical professor of law Frank Vandervort, according to BCC. ‘If there is such a thing.’
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