James Crumbley convicted of manslaughter charges in son Ethan Crumbley’s shooting rampage
Ethan Crumbley’s dad was convicted on manslaughter charges by a Michigan jury Thursday for allegedly failing to act on warning signs his son was unhinged before he killed four classmates in a 2021 school shooting.
James Crumbley, 47, was found guilty on all four counts of involuntary manslaughter by a jury in a Pontiac, Michigan court after ten hours of deliberations spread over two days and after a five-day trial.
“He did nothing over and over and over again,” prosecutor Karen McDonald said of the father not intervening with his son’s violent behavior during closing arguments Wednesday.
Prosecutors told jurors James failed to intervene despite his teen son’s unstable mental state, including by neglecting to lock up the semi-automatic handgun the dad bought for Ethan as a Christmas present.
Just four days later Ethan, then 15, used the weapon in the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting spree where he killed four students and injured another six classmates and a teacher at Oxford High School outside of Detroit.
James’ lawyer, Mariell Lehman, told jurors the dad “had no idea his son was having a hard time” and said he couldn’t have known his son would carry out the heinous murders.
Ethan, now 17, plead guilty to terrorism and first-degree murder and was sentenced to life behind bars without parole in December 2023. His killing victims were Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16.
The case against Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley's parents
- Ethan Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer, have each been sentenced to between 10 and 15 years behind bars in a Michigan court in their son’s 2021 school shooting, which left four dead and six injured.
- They are now the first parents in the nation’s history to be convicted of manslaughter in a school shooting carried out by their child. Both were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter charges at separate trials in March and February.
- The couple faced prison for failing to intervene despite obvious warning signs their son was troubled.
- Prosecutors told jurors James failed to intervene despite his teen son’s unstable mental state, even neglecting to lock up the semi-automatic handgun the dad bought for Ethan as a Christmas presen before the shooting.
- James was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March and Jennifer was found guilty in February after jurors found her to be an unreliable witness.
- In September 2023, Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the deaths of Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16.
Ethan’s mother and James’ wife, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted on involuntary manslaughter charges on Feb. 6 after prosecutors similarly argued that she, like James, ignored her son’s mental health struggles, allowed him to have access to a gun and failed to take the teen out of school when shown his violent drawings the same day as the shooting.
James took his son to the gun store to buy the teenager a Sig Sauer 9mm gun four days before the shooting, a gun store employee testified.
And jurors were shown video of Jennifer showing Ethan how to shoot at a gun range just three days before the rampage.
The father had also taken him to the shooting range in the year before the tragic incident.
Her conviction marked the first time in the US a parent was held responsible for a school shooting carried out by a child.
The morning of the shooting, a teacher found grim drawings by Ethan on his math assignment of a handgun — resembling the one he was gifted.
The drawing also depicted a bullet and a person bleeding accompanied by the words “Blood everywhere,” “My life is useless” and “The thoughts won’t stop — help me,” according to trial testimony.
Officials called the Crumbleys to school that morning, telling them Ethan — a sophomore — needed mental help and needed to be taken home.
But the couple pushed back on taking their son home, didn’t check his backpack or ask him about the weapon, prosecutors argued.
Ethan texted a friend recounting his dad “gave me some pills and told me to suck it up” when the child asked his parent to take him to the doctor, prosecutors said.
But Lehman countered that James didn’t know about his son’s texts or journal entries calling for help and he didn’t know the teen was struggling — an argument unsucessfully made by Jennifer’s lawyers at trial.
Unable to post the $500,00 bond set in each of their cases, the parents have both been jailed for over two years while they awaited trial. They face up to 15 years imprisonment.
Jennifer is slated to be sentenced on April 9.
With Post wires
