On Tuesday, a Michigan court sentenced Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first parents of a mass school shooter in the United States to involuntary manslaughter in the incident, to 10 to 15 years in prison.
After their families testified in court, Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17, received their sentences. On November 30, 2021, the Crumbleys’ son, Ethan, opened fire at Oxford High School in Michigan, killing the students.
“You created all of this,” Baldwin’s mother, Nicole Beausoleil, said through tears. “You have failed as parents.” The punishment you face will never be sufficient.”
Beausoleil recalled her daughter’s final hours and compared them to the Crumbleys’ behavior leading up to and after the shooting. “When you texted ‘Ethan, don’t do it,’ I texted Madisyn, ‘I love you.'” “Please call Mom,” she begged.
Reina St. Juliana, Hana’s sister, moved many to tears as she spoke about how her sister would never see her prom, graduation, or birthdays.
“I never got to say goodbye,” Reina explained. “Hana was only 14; she took her last breath in a school she hadn’t even been in for three months.”
Jill Soave, Justin Shilling’s mother, wanted the judge to give his parents the maximum punishment available. “The ripple effects of both James’ and Jennifer’s failures to act have devastated us all,” she went on to say. “This tragedy was completely preventable.”
Before imposing the sentence, Judge Cheryl Matthews addressed both parents, saying, “Mr. Crumbley, it is apparent to this court that because of you, there was unfettered access to a gun or firearms, as well as ammunition, in your home.
She went on to say, “Mrs. Crumbley, you glorified the use and possession of these weapons.”
We will credit both parents for their previous jail time.
Matthews also forbade the couple, or their “agents,” from contacting the four students’ families. She stated that she would also rule on the parents’ right to contact their son.
Jennifer and James Crumbley also addressed the court before their sentencing.
She said, “I cannot express in words the dragging this has had on my heart and soul, just as I know this is not going to ease the pain and suffering of the victims and their families.”
Jennifer Crumbley used her statement to explain her trial testimony, saying she would not have done anything differently prior to the incident. It was “completely misunderstood,” she claimed Tuesday, adding that her kid appeared “so normal” and that she couldn’t have predicted the attack.
Prosecutors, according to her, tried to paint her and her husband as parents “so horrible, only a school or mass shooter could be born from.”
“We were good parents.” We were an average family. “We weren’t perfect, but we loved our son and each other so much,” Jennifer Crumbley said.
James Crumbley apologized to the family in his statement.
They quoted him as saying, “I cannot express how much I wish I had known what was going on with him and what was going to happen, because I absolutely would have done a lot of things differently.”
Prosecutors requested that each parent serve 10 to 15 years in prison after separate juries convicted them on four charges of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year. Their son, who was 15 when the shooting occurred, is serving a life term for the murders.
Prosecutors informed Matthews in a sentencing document that the parents had shown no remorse for their actions. They told jurors that the Crumbleys bought their son the gun he used and ignored warning flags about his mental state.
According to legal experts, the case, which has received national attention, may alter how society regards parents’ liability when their children gain access to firearms and cause harm to them. It is unclear whether the verdict will motivate prosecutors to file charges against parents in the future.
Why were the Crumbleys culpable in their son’s crimes?
Hours after counselors summoned the Crumbleys’ son’s parents to discuss concerns over frightening drawings he had created for a math project, he went on a rampage in the halls of Oxford High School. Prosecutors said the parents did not inform school officials that their kid had access to firearms in the home and left him at school that day.
James Crumbley bought the gun used in the shooting, and Jennifer Crumbley revealed on social media that it was a Christmas present for the youngster. The prosecution claimed that the parents could have avoided the shooting if they had taken conventional precautions to safeguard the gun and acted when it became evident that their son was suffering from significant mental health issues.
The prosecution cited text messages sent by the teen to his mother months before the shooting, in which he claimed to have seen a “demon” in their home and garments flying around. He also texted a pal that he was experiencing “paranoia” and hearing voices. In a diary entry, he stated, “I have zero help for my mental problems, and it’s causing me to shoot up” the school.
According to authorities, the Crumbleys attempted to avoid law enforcement when it became evident they would face prosecution.
Defense attorneys claimed that the parents had no idea their son would behave the way he did. Jennifer Crumbley portrayed herself as an attentive mother when she testified in her own defense, while James Crumbley’s counsel stated that the pistol did not truly belong to the boy, that the father properly secured the rifle, and that he did not let his son use it alone. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, the jury foreman in James Crumbley’s trial stated that the storage of the pistol was the essential testimony that led to his conviction.
Parents asked for house arrest, time served
James Crumbley has requested a sentence based on the time he has spent since his arrest in December 2021, according to the prosecutors’ sentencing memo. Jennifer Crumbley wanted to serve her time under house arrest while staying at her lawyer’s guest house.
Prosecutors denied the pleas in the document to the judge, claiming that neither had expressed regret for their involvement in the deaths of four youngsters. Keast also accused James Crumbley of threatening Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald over the phone while in jail, demonstrating his “chilling lack of remorse.”
“Such a proposed sentence is a slap in the face of the severity of tragedy caused by Jennifer Crumbley’s gross negligence, the victims, and their families,” Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Marc Keast said of the mother’s request in a sentencing memo.
The maximum punishment for each conviction of involuntary manslaughter is 15 years in prison, typically served concurrently rather than consecutively. The court has the ability to go beyond or below the state advisory guidelines, which propose a sentencing range of 43 to 86 months, with a maximum of almost seven years. The state guideline is advisory, based on post-conviction interviews and the facts of the case.
