Days after the Oxford, Michigan, school murders, McDonald made the unprecedented decision to file criminal charges against parents in school shootings committed by their children. Ethan Crumbley is serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of 14-year-old Hannah St. Juliana. Tate Mire, 16 years old. Madisyn Baldwin, 17 years old. Justin Schilling, 17, and seven others were injured.
MacDonald insists that he deserves a sentence. Separate sentencing memos condemned James Crumbley, 47, and his wife Jennifer Crumbley, 45, saying they were negligent and without remorse.
The sentencing memo also revealed unusual requests and new information mentioned in court away from the jury during James Crumbley's trial.
Jennifer Crumbley's attorney, Shannon Smith, requested that her client be sentenced to home confinement with electronic monitoring and live in Smith's guest house. Mr McDonald wrote that such a sentence would be “a slap in the face to the seriousness of the tragedy”.
But McDonald was particularly egregious by James Crumbley, who revealed details of McDonald's “electronic intimidation” in prison, which resulted in McDonald being arrested midway through his trial in March. I ended up losing most of my communication privileges.
“Defendant's jail phone calls showed him blaming everyone but himself for what happened and repeatedly referred to himself as a 'martyr,'” MacDonald said. he wrote. She said in a phone call between 2022 and 2023, James Crumbley called MacDonald “that fucking whore,” called her by her name, and told her he would listen to her. He made it clear that he was hoping for that.
“There will be retribution, believe me,” James Crumbley said in a December 2023 prison message. In a phone call a month later, he said he was “ramping out” and told McDonald he “should be scared.”
“His jail summons shows a total lack of remorse, as he blames everyone but himself and threatens elected prosecutors,” MacDonald wrote.
Lawyers for the Crumbleys have tried to paint a different picture of their clients and said prosecutors are banking on public outrage over the shootings.
Jennifer Crumbley was “blamed, no matter what she did or didn't do,” Smith wrote. During her client's trial, she portrayed Jennifer Crumbley as ruthless and compassionate, despite prosecutors' objections to her becoming emotional as silent video of the shooting was played in court. She pointed out that she was portrayed as a mother without a child.
Both men have been in prison for 27 months, spending all but one hour a day in solitary confinement, their lawyers said.
Throughout the two trials, the prosecution's most important argument against the parents was that they bought a gun for an obviously troubled teen, failed to secure it, and prevented the shooting before the shooting. It was said that no measures were taken that could have been taken, including on the morning of that day. A tragedy that will soon occur.
James Crumbley bought a 9mm Sig Sauer as an early Christmas present days before the shooting, and Jennifer Crumbley bought ammunition and took her son to a shooting range to practice.
On the morning of the shooting, the parents were called in to discuss violent drawings their son had drawn for a math project, including a drawing of a black gun and a bullet-ridden body. The Crumbleys left their son at school and went back to work when their son asked to stay. A few hours later, they were told there had been a shooting at Oxford High School.
In closing arguments in James Crumbley's case, MacDonald unequivocally acknowledged that the parents had failed in their legal and parental duties, saying, “Averting the deaths of these four people would have taken a tragically small amount of normal work.'' He just needed care.”