The father of the convicted Oxford High School shooter said on the phone in jail that he wanted to destroy prosecutors in the case against him and that he would soon go to hell, sources confirmed.
A source close to the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office confirmed that James Crumbley made the comment to his sister while the case was pending.
The new details were first reported Monday by the Detroit Free Press.
A Michigan jury last week found Crumbley guilty of four counts of manslaughter in the shootings of his son, who killed four of his classmates.
James Crumbley and his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, were found guilty of similar charges in a separate trial in February, making them the first parents in the U.S. to be charged in a school shooting committed by their children. .
James Crumbley allegedly told his sister that he was going to make it his goal in life to destroy Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, that she was going to hell soon, that she should be scared, and that it was over. A source confirmed this.
Marielle Lehman, Crumbley's attorney, declined to elaborate on the nature of the conversation with Crumbley, saying on Monday that there was “disagreement of opinion regarding the content and nature of what was said.” He added that he had agreed to cover up the matter. media.
After NBC News confirmed the details of what Crumbley allegedly told his sister, Lehman declined further comment.
Asked Friday about the threats, McDonald said “he made a lot of threats” but declined to elaborate because she didn't want to draw any more attention to him.
“I don't think it's important to talk about it,” McDonald said at the time.
Information about the alleged threats first became public during Mr. Crumbley's trial. A judge signed the order on March 7 after prosecutors and defense attorneys reached an agreement to limit communication inside the jail.
For the rest of the trial, Crumbley was able to speak only to his lawyer and legitimate clergy and conduct research to aid his defense, but prosecutor David Williams told the court that once a verdict is reached, there will be no restrictions. He said it may be lifted.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office said at the time that Crumbley's jail communications were restricted “due to threatening statements.” When contacted Monday, the office said it had nothing further to add.
Sources did not reveal the frequency or exact number of threats Crumbley allegedly made, but there were multiple threats in 2022, 2023 and in January, before his parents' trial began. admitted that.
Ethan Crumbley murdered four students, Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Mire, 16 years old. Hannah St. Juliana, 14 years old. and Justin Schilling, 17, and opened fire with a handgun on Nov. 30, 2021, injuring seven others.
The father had purchased the Sig Sauer 9mm handgun he used several days earlier, and prosecutors say it was not stored securely. MacDonald last week called the facts “terrible” and said the shooting was foreseeable and that his parents could have prevented it “with a modicum of effort.”
At trial, school officials testified that Crumbley's parents were called to school on the day of the shooting to discuss their son's drawings of guns and people who had been shot. Neither told staff he had acquired the weapon and said they could not take him home because of his job.
James Crumbley's defense claims he could not have predicted that his son would start shooting hours later.
“He wanted to take his son home that day. Had he known what was going to happen, he would have made a different decision,” Lehman said Monday., Crumbley added that she feels terrible about what happened to her family.
James Crumbley and Jennifer Crumbley are scheduled to be sentenced on April 9th. It is the first time the parents, who cannot be contacted from prison, have met since they attended a joint hearing together before the trial was separated. They each face up to 15 years in prison.
