PONTIAC, Mich. — Prosecutors in the criminal trial of James Crumbley, the father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, showed jurors Thursday an image of an unused gun's cable lock, still in its original packaging. The court opened with the following instructions. He was unable to prevent the oncoming rampage.
“That nightmare was preventable and foreseeable,” Oakland County Prosecutor Mark Keast said of the November 2021 shooting at Oxford High School that killed four students and injured several others. ” he said. Crumbley added: “He was an adult in the best position of anyone in the world to prevent the deaths of children.”
Keast said that although Crumbley has not been charged with knowing that Ethan, now incarcerated, was trying to commit the worst school shooting in Michigan history, “the problem is that “The question becomes how can a father be held responsible for his son's intentional acts?” ? ”
“You need gross negligence, the cause of death, and the act of the other person to be reasonably foreseeable. Those are the three elements that have to be proven,” he told jurors in a trial that could last about two weeks. told the staff.
But in opening statements, James Crumbley's attorney defended his actions in the months leading up to the shooting and on the day of the shooting, telling jurors that he simply did not know about his son's plans for the attack.
“You won't hear that James even suspected his son was dangerous,” Mariel Lehman said.
“What prosecutors want you to believe, which is not true, is that James Crumbley knew what his son was going to do and that he had a duty to protect others from him. “I mean,” she added. “Ladies and gentlemen, that's not true. He didn't know.”
Crumbley, 47, is charged with four counts of manslaughter in one of the victims of the massacre at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit days after Thanksgiving.
His wife, Jennifer Crumbley, 45, was found guilty on the same charges last month and is scheduled to be sentenced in April. She could receive up to 15 years in prison for each of her charges, as would James Crumbley if convicted.
Opening statements from the prosecution and defense Thursday were similar to those given to jurors in Jennifer Crumbley's landmark trial. This is the first time in the United States that parents have been held partially responsible for their children's school shootings.
Prosecutors said James Crumbley bought Ethan a 9mm Sig Sauer gun as a gift during a period when Ethan was texting more often than anyone else and his best friend, to whom he confides, was It was a time when I had moved away and was suffering mentally. .
“Mr. James Crumbley gave the gun as a gift to his son, even though he knew that his son was in the midst of complete and utter social isolation and was in a downward spiral of suffering. “I made the decision to purchase it for some time,'' Keast told jurors.
He went on to say that Crumbley was required to properly lock the gun and was aware that his children had access to it when he and his wife were called to visit him on the morning of the shooting. He said there were further opportunities to prevent the violence, including telling school staff. About the picture of a gun and a man being shot in Ethan's math homework.
Mr. Keast said Mr. Crumbley may have returned home after the meeting to check for guns, but GPS evidence would show that he did not return until after his parents in Oxford were alerted to gunfire. suggested. But Lehman told the jury that Crumbley, who was a DoorDash driver, did not notice and did nothing out of the ordinary on the day of the shooting.
“Why would you do something different if you don't realize there's immediate danger?” Lehman said. “I wouldn't do that because there's no reason to.”
James Crumbley, wearing a suit and glasses, stared mostly straight ahead, using behind-the-ear devices to aid his hearing.
His wife's trial was marked by emotional testimony. Video and photos of the shooting were shown to jurors, and Jennifer Crumbley could be heard sobbing at times in her seat. In her own defense, she testified that she had left her husband in charge of storing and storing the family's firearms.
Among the first witnesses Thursday were two people who testified at Jennifer Crumbley's trial. One was a teacher at Oxford High School who was shot and tearfully described what happened on the day of the massacre. The other was a former detective who examined surveillance video of the shooting and messages between the two men. Clan Blaze.
Former Oakland County Sheriff's Office official Edward Wagrowski described a series of text messages between James and Jennifer Crumbley regarding concerns about Ethan's health and mental state in the months before the shooting. We talked.
“Hey, calm down. He's fine. And I'm trying to (expletive) work,” James Crumbley wrote to his wife.
Meanwhile, Ethan sent a text message to his best friend saying he was suffering from “severe insomnia” and paranoia, suggesting he specifically asked his father to contact his parents and take him to the doctor. .
“He just handed me the medication and said, 'Take it all,'” Ethan texted.
He also said that about three months before the shooting, he sent a video of himself holding a gun to a friend. “My dad forgot about it and I thought, 'Why not?' (LOL),” Ethan texted.
Opening statements in James Crumbley's trial come after two days of jury selection in which 15 people will be seated, 12 of whom will be randomly selected to deliberate the verdict.
Similar to the Jennifer Crumbley trial, jurors in the James Crumbley trial are not sequestered, but are asked not to watch or read news about the trial. Additionally, most of the jurors in his trial are also parents, and either own guns, grew up around guns, or have family members or friends who own guns. This highlights how common exposure to firearms is in this hunting-rich part of Michigan. Popular activity.
During jury selection, the defense hinted at how they would portray James Crumbley at trial, emphasizing that parents often aren't perfect despite their best efforts, and to many jurors, It made them accept that it's normal for teenagers to keep secrets from their parents, and for them to confide in them. One parent is assigned a different version of the event than the other parent.
The themes of parental responsibility and safe gun storage will also come into play in the James Crumbley trial.
However, there are some differences. At least two new witnesses are expected to testify. One is the original owner of the 9mm semi-automatic handgun, who sold it to the gun store where James Crumbley purchased the gun and cable lock, and the other is the student injured in the shooting.
Some evidence has been added or withheld since the first trial. For example, text messages between Jennifer Crumbley and her son that were shared while she and her husband were riding horses won't be heard this time. The text supported prosecutors' claims that Jennifer Crumbley had complained that her mother was careless, that her son was suffering and that there was a “devil” in her home. Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews ruled Thursday that the texts were inadmissible because there was no evidence that James Crumbley was aware of them.
During jury selection, Matthews emphasized that James Crumbley's case is separate from his wife's and the evidence is different, and media coverage makes the decision too unfair to be fair. I asked if anyone was there.
“Can you put aside your compassion and judge this case based on the evidence and facts?” Matthews asked.
A judge rejected potential jurors who expressed sharp opinions about school shootings. They include one man who said he was troubled by the number of cases across the country and one who said he believed prosecutors were only bringing charges to satisfy an angry public. was.
As with Jennifer Crumbley's trial, son Ethan will not testify in his father's case.
Ethan, now 17, pleaded guilty as an adult to murder, terrorism and other crimes in 2022 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December.
The loved ones of the four shooting victims: Madisyn Baldwin, 17. Tate Mire, 16 years old. Hannah St. Juliana, 14 years old. and Justin Schilling, 17, attended Thursday's opening statement.
It is unclear whether James Crumbley will take the stand.
Serena Guevara reported from Pontiac and Eric Ortiz reported from New York.
