By ED WHITE (Associated Press)
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The father of a Michigan school shooter was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter Thursday, a second conviction against the teen’s parents who were accused of failing to secure a gun at home and doing nothing to address acute signs of his mental turmoil.
The jury verdict means James Crumbley has joined Jennifer Crumbley as a cause of the killing of four students at Oxford High School in 2021, even without pulling the trigger.
They had separate trials as the first U.S. parents to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. Jennifer Crumbley was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in February.
The verdicts — one each for the four victims — were read around 7:15 p.m. at the end of a full day of deliberations.
James Crumbley heard the outcome through headphones worn throughout the trial because of a hearing problem. He shook his head from side to side as the jury foreman said “guilty.”
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen,” Judge Cheryl Matthews told the jury of six men and six women. “I know how hard this has been on all of you.”
Prosecutors focused on two key themes at the trial: the parents’ response to a morbid drawing on Ethan Crumbley’s math assignment a few hours before the shooting, and the teen’s access to a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun purchased by James Crumbley only four days earlier.
Ethan made a ghastly drawing of a gun and a wounded man on a math assignment and added disturbing phrases, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. My life is useless.”
But James and Jennifer Crumbley declined to take Ethan home following a brief meeting at the school, and staff didn’t demand it. A counselor, concerned about suicidal ideations, told them to seek help for the boy within 48 hours.
Ethan had told Shawn Hopkins that he was sad over the death of his dog and grandmother and the loss of a friend who had abruptly moved away. He said the drawing was simply his jottings for a video game and that he wasn’t planning to commit violence.
Neither he, nor his parents, told school officials about the gun they had just bought, according to trial testimony.
Hopkins had hoped Ethan would spend the day with his parents. But when that was ruled out, the counselor felt the teen would probably be safer around others at school.
Ethan later pulled the Sig Sauer from his backpack and began shooting that same day, killing Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16. No one had checked the bag, though a school administrator had joked about its heaviness.
“James Crumbley is not on trial for what his son did,” prosecutor Karen McDonald told the jury. “James Crumbley is on trial for what he did and for what he didn’t do.”
He “doesn’t get a pass because somebody else” actually pulled the trigger, she said.
Hopkins told the jury that James Crumbley showed empathy toward his son during the meeting about the drawing, but took no additional action.
When James Crumbley heard about the shooting, he rushed home from his DoorDash job and looked for the gun.
The man said in a panicked 911 call that he believes his son took the gun.
On the parents' bed, investigators discovered an empty gun case and ammunition box. There was also an unopened package containing a cable that could have been used to lock the gun.
When he admitted to murder and terrorism, Ethan confessed to the judge that he had put the gun in his backpack without locking it.
Defense attorney Mariell Lehman tried to stress that James Crumbley did not approve of his son accessing the gun.
She told the jurors that he was unaware that he needed to protect others from his son and had no knowledge that his son would commit these crimes. He had no idea about his son's intentions.
There were no expert testimonies about Ethan's mental health, and no records were presented. The boy's lawyers stated prior to the trial that he would remain silent if called to testify.
However, the judge permitted the jury to see excerpts from the teenager's handwritten journal.
Ethan wrote, “I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the … school. I want help but my parents don’t listen to me so I can’t get any help.”
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