Ethan Crumbley was 15 when he opened fire at his suburban Detroit high school in November 2021, armed with a semi-automatic handgun that his parents helped purchase as an early Christmas present.
The rampage left four students dead and several others injured, shattering the close-knit community of Oxford, Michigan, and resulting last month in a life sentence without parole for Crumbley, who was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to two dozen counts, including for murder and terrorism.
Now, scrutiny falls on the teenager’s parents.
In a rare attempt to hold the parents of a school shooter criminally responsible, James Crumbley, 47, and his wife, Jennifer, 45, are each facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter and will be tried separately, with a trial set to open with jury selection in Oakland County on Tuesday.
But key details remain unclear, including if their separate trials will be held simultaneously or one after the other, and if the latter, which parent would be tried first. A court administrator said such logistical decisions were ongoing.
Defendants requesting separate trials for a related crime is not uncommon and can be part of a larger strategy, said Jeffrey Swartz, a former county judge in Florida and professor at the Cooley Law School in Michigan and Florida.
“The Crumbleys are not going to contest that their son was guilty,” Swartz said. “If I’m projecting in this particular case, each parent is going to point the finger at the other. Which one knew about Ethan’s problems, who was responsible for hiding and securing the gun?”
Holding two trials at different times could also benefit whoever goes second, as it gives their defense lawyer a chance to reassess what happened in the first trial and what may or may not have played to the jury, Swartz added.
A gag order imposed by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews in 2022 bars both county prosecutors and the separate lawyers for the Crumbleys from speaking publicly.
The…
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