(UnitedHeadlines.com) – On March 14, a jury in Michigan convicted James Crumbley, 47, on four counts of involuntary manslaughter related to the deaths of four Oxford High School students his son Ethan Crumbley killed in a 2021 school shooting.
During closing arguments of the five-day trial, prosecutor Karen McDonald stated that “over and over again” James Crumbley did nothing to intervene regarding his son’s violent behavior and unstable mental state, including neglecting to lock up the handgun he bought for his then-15-year-old son.
According to testimony from a gun store employee, four days before the shooting, James Crumbley purchased a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun for his son as an early present for Christmas.
A year before the shooting, the father took his son to the range, and just three days before the shooting, his mother took him to the range, according to prosecutors.
On Nov. 30, 2021, Ethan Crumbley used the handgun to kill four students and injure a teacher and six other students. In December 2023, he was sentenced to serve life in prison without parole after he pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism and first-degree murder.
Mariell Lehma, the attorney for James Crumbley, said he was unaware “his son was having a hard time” or that he would go on to use the handgun to commit murder.
James Crumbley’s conviction comes after his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, who is Ethan’s mother, was convicted on Feb. 6 on charges of involuntary manslaughter for allegedly allowing the teenager to have access to the handgun and ignoring his struggles with mental health. Despite the teacher finding a drawing of a handgun with the words “Blood everywhere” and “My life is useless,” his parents pushed back on school officials who said he needed to be taken home from school on the day of the shooting.
Both parents, who face up to 15 years in jail, have been unable to post the $500,00 bond and have been jailed for more than two years while they awaited trial. They will both be sentenced on April 9.
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