Michigan school shooter’s mom wants house arrest, backtracks on regrets as killer’s parents face sentencings
The parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley are set to be sentenced on Tuesday after two juries found both parents guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the November 2021 massacre.
Prosecutors are asking Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews to sentence James and Jennifer Crumbley to serve between 10 and 15 years each, but the Crumbleys’ defense attorneys are asking for time served, meaning no other prison time other than what they have already served awaiting their trials.
Jennifer is also asking for house arrest and proposed living in her attorney’s guesthouse.
“I think that’s very strange. I’ve never heard of a situation like that,” Detroit-based criminal defense attorney Maurice Davis told Fox News Digital of Jennifer’s request.
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Prosecutor Marc Keast described the parents’ proposed sentences of time served as “a slap in the face” to the shooting victims in a memo released last week, adding that both parents have shown “a lack of remorse” for their roles in the tragedy, according to local reports.
At one point during her trial, Jennifer said she “wouldn’t have” done anything differently if given the chance.
JENNIFER CRUMBLEY TRIAL: MICHIGAN JURY FINDS SCHOOL SHOOTER’S MOM GUILTY OF INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER
“Of course, I look back after all this happened, and I have asked myself if I would have done anything differently. I wouldn’t have,” Jennifer testified, adding that she wishes her son would have killed her and her husband, James Crumbley, “instead.”
In a pre-sentencing statement, Jennifer Crumbley backtracked on her own testimony.
WATCH: Jennifer Crumbley testifies during her trial
“At trial, when I was on the stand I was asked if I would have done anything differently, I testified that I would not have — and that is true without the benefit of of (sic) hindsight that I have now,” Crumbley wrote, according to the Detroit News. “With the information I have now, of course my answer would be hugely different. There are so many things that I would change if I could go back in time. I knew my son to be a quiet, good kid, who loved his pets. I never imagined he would hurt other people in the way that he did.”
“I knew my son to be a quiet, good kid, who loved his pets.”
Keast said in the memo that consistent with Jennifer’s “efforts to minimize her culpability directly after the shooting, defendant — now even after trial — continues to show a complete lack of remorse by minimizing any role she had in the matter,” the Detroit Free Press reported.
“Demonstrating this fact, defendant thinks a proportionate sentence is to ‘be placed on a tether with house arrest’ at her attorney’s guest house — ostensibly an upgraded residence from … where she resided before her gross negligence that led to the Oxford High School shooting,” Keast wrote.
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Jennifer’s attorney, Shannon Smith, wrote in court documents that “[p]utting Mrs. Crumbley in prison does nothing to further deter others from committing like offenses.”
“There is no person who would want the events of November 30, 2021, to repeat themselves,” she wrote, according to the Detroit News.
“Mrs. Crumbley was damned no matter what she did or did not do,” Smith continued. “At trial Mrs. Crumbley’s reactions to the tragic events and learning what her son did were criticized at every turn. The prosecution certainly tried to convey that Mrs. Crumbley did not care enough about what was going on, that she did not cry enough, and that she did not behave the way a mother of a school shooter would behave.”
Meanwhile, James Crumbley is under fire for allegedly making threats toward Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald in jail calls.
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McDonald’s office said in a March press release that the “threats are serious, and they also reflect a lack of remorse and a continued refusal to take accountability for his part in the deaths of” the four students who were murdered on Nov. 30, 2021, including Tate Myre, 16; Justin Shilling, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Madisyn Baldwin, 17.
“Leading up to and during trial, defendant’s behavior and statements showed a complete lack of remorse and disrespect for the court proceedings,” prosecutors wrote in a memo in James’ case, according to the Free Press. “Defendant’s jail calls showed that he blamed everyone but himself for what happened and that he repeatedly referred to himself as being persecuted and considered himself a ‘martyr.'”
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His attorney, Mariell Lehman, wrote in a memo that while “reviewing the phone calls which are alleged to contain threats of physical harm, it is clear that Mr. Crumbley is venting to loved ones about his frustrations related to the lack of investigation done by the prosecution prior to authorizing charges against him and his wife,” the Detroit News reported.
She added that James expressed remorse for those who died in the 2021 shooting in jail calls.
“He repeatedly expressed that he wished he had known and that he would have done things differently if he had,” Lehman said.
Oxford police said Ethan used a 9 mm SIG Sauer to shoot up Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. James purchased the firearm, which contained several rounds of ammunition when authorities recovered it, for his then-15-year-old son just days before the massacre. Jennifer posted about the purchase on social media, calling it a Christmas gift for her teenage son.
Ethan pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism last year. He is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors have suggested the Crumbleys could have stopped the shooting before it happened when they arrived at Oxford High on the morning of Nov. 30 to meet with school counselors after Ethan was caught scrawling disturbing notes in class.
His notes included an image of a gun and the phrases “Help me,” “Blood everywhere” and “My life is useless,” along with a drawing of a gun.
MICHIGAN SCHOOL SHOOTER ETHAN CRUMBLEY’S FATHER CALLS HIM ‘PERFECT KID’ IN INTERVIEW WITH POLICE
Instead of taking their son home, prosecutors said, James and Jennifer left him at school and went about their day. Ethan later pulled his father’s handgun, which had not been locked in their home, out of his backpack, fatally shot four students and wounded seven others.
Prosecutors have pointed to Ethan’s journal entries, text messages and videos saying he wanted help and his parents were ignoring him. The day before the school massacre, Ethan made a 19-minute video describing what he was going to do the next day, prosecutors said during Jennifer’s trial.
After the shooting, the Crumbleys allegedly fled Oxford and went to Detroit with $6,000 in cash following some initial questioning from police. U.S. Marshals eventually apprehended them days later on Dec. 4, 2021.
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