When Jennifer Crumbley took the stand during her involuntary manslaughter trial in February, the mother of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley suggested safe storage of the family’s firearms was under the control of one person: her husband, James.
“It was more his thing,” she testified, “so I let him handle that. I didn’t feel comfortable putting the lock thing on it.”
Despite her attempt to deflect fault onto him, as their son used a semi-automatic handgun bought by James Crumbley to kill four high school classmates in 2021, a jury ultimately found her guilty — the first time in the U.S. that a parent was held criminally responsible for a school shooting perpetrated by their child.
James Crumbley, 47, now gets his day in court in the unsual case. His trial on an identical charge of four counts of involuntary manslaughter — each one representing a student who was killed — begins Tuesday with jury selection.
His wife’s trial was marked by dramatic testimony surrounding the day of the shooting and video from Oxford High School in suburban Detroit. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, often sobbed and hunched over in her seat as witnesses recalled the worst school shooting in Michigan’s history.
“It’s an entirely new trial. A new set of jurors,” said Mark Chutkow, a lawyer who previously led the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit and is not affiliated with the case. “Although the facts will be mostly the same, there are some advantages to the defense this time around.”
Similar strategy
Chutkow said he expects Oakland County prosecutors to use the same “playbook” against James Crumbley as they did with his wife “because it worked.”
“Not only did they win a conviction, but it didn’t take the jury long,” Chutkow said of the deliberations, which lasted about 11 hours.
As with Jennifer Crumbley, a jury must determine if James Crumbley is guilty of involuntary manslaughter by either failing to store the firearm in a way that would have obstructed his son from…
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