Şevval Tufan
Jury deliberations resumed Thursday in the manslaughter trial of James Crumbley, the father of the teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school in 2021, in a case tried just a month after the shooter’s mother was convicted of the same charges.
Crumbley is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday.
Prosecutors in closing arguments Wednesday said James Crumbley was “grossly negligent” because he bought a SIG Sauer 9mm gun for his son days before the attack, failed to properly secure it, ignored his son’s deteriorating mental health and did not take “reasonable care” to prevent foreseeable danger.
James Crumbley has pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
“James Crumbley is not on trial for what his son did,” Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald said. “James Crumbley is on trial for what he did and what he didn’t do.”
In response, defense attorney Mariell Lehman asserted the prosecution’s case lacked evidence and was based on “assumptions and hindsight.”
The deliberations come more than two years after Ethan Crumbley, then 15, used the SIG Sauer 9mm to kill four students and wound six students and a teacher at Oxford High School on November 30, 2021.
The cases against the parents represent a test of the limits of who is responsible for a mass shooting. Prosecutors aiming to expand the scope of blame in mass shootings have used a novel legal strategy by arguing the parents are personally responsible for the deaths because they got their son a gun and ignored signs of his declining mental health.
Parents have previously faced liability for their child’s actions, such as with neglect or firearms charges, but Jennifer Crumbley’s guilty verdict was the first time a school shooter’s parent was held directly responsible for the killings. She is set to be sentenced on April 9.
Ethan was sentenced last year to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to terrorism causing death, four counts of murder and 19 other related charges. He did not testify in either of his parents’ trials, as his attorneys said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence.
Image / News Source: CNN
