PONTIAC, Mich. (NewsNation) — The trial for a Michigan woman who faces involuntary manslaughter charges, the first of its kind in U.S. history seeking to hold a parent accountable for a school shooting committed by their child, resumed Friday.
On Thursday, which was the first day of Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, prosecutors told jurors that the Nov. 31, 2021, shooting could have been prevented if Crumbly had removed her son, Ethan Crumbley, from school after seeing his violent drawings that same day.
Jennifer Crumbley is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the attack at Oxford High School. Prosecutors insist she and her husband James Crumbley were grossly negligent and that their son’s actions were foreseeable.
Jennifer Crumbley was aware of Ethan Crumbley’s deteriorating mental health and social isolation and knew that a gun drawn on a math assignment resembled the one that he had used with her at a shooting range, assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said.
Instead of taking their son home from school after seeing the drawing, Jennifer and James Crumbley left a meeting after 11 minutes and allowed him to stay. He soon killed four students and wounded several others. No one had checked his backpack for a gun.
The case against Jennifer Crumbley and James Crumbley, who will stand trial in March, marks the first time that a parent has been charged in a mass shooting at a U.S. school.
Keast focused on two key themes: Access to a gun at the Crumbley home and the school meeting on the day of the shooting, when a teacher was alarmed by the teen’s drawing of blood and a gun and the phrase, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
Defense attorney Shannon Smith told jurors that evidence of the shooting will “make you sick and disgusted.” But she said Jennifer Crumbley was manipulated by her son and wasn’t to blame.
Jennifer Crumbley, who will testify in her own defense, was a “hypervigilant mother who cared more about her son than anything in the world,” Smith said.
The first day of testimony ended with federal firearms agent Brett Brandon, who helped introduce a video of the shooter and Jennifer Crumbley at a shooting range three days before the assault. The teen appeared confident as he examined his paper targets and helped his mother handle the 9 mm gun.
On cross-examination, Brandon acknowledged there was nothing illegal about taking the teen to a shooting range. He also said he didn’t know how the gun was stored at the Crumbley home.
Ethan Crumbley, 17, was sentenced to life in prison in December after he pleaded guilty to murder, terrorism and other crimes. He was 15 at the time of the shooting.
The parents have been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial, unable to afford a $500,000 bond. Involuntary manslaughter in Michigan carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
