Mother Goes to Jail for Son's Shooting

school shootings Are Not Unusual in this country yay America we're number one but what was unusual about the Oxford High School shooting is that many blamed the parents and now the parents are on trial and the mother Jennifer Crumbley was convicted our resident District's attorney scow takes a deep dive into this conviction school shootings continue to be one of the darkest stains on America's Collective Soul there have been seven school shootings in the United States resulting in death or injury in January 2024 alone with 38 such shootings in 2023 51 in 2022 and 35 in 2021 one of those Shooters was Ethan Crumbley who at 15 years old shot and killed four classmates while wounding six others and a teacher at Michigan's Oxford High School in 20121 prosecutors swiftly hit Crumbley with 24 charges including one count of terrorism and four counts of first-degree murder and charging him as an adult after pleading guilty to all charges he was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2023 but what makes this situation so unique is that for the first time ever prosecutors also charged the parents for failing to stop their son from committing a mass shooting when this Channel first covered the shooting back in 2021 we discussed the historic nature of the case against James and Jennifer Crumbley and whether this prosecution could be successful so the question is what if anything is different about this particular case and does it signal a trend towards making parents more responsible for school shootings 2 years later the jury is spoken and Jennifer Crumley has been found guilty of all charges making her the first parent ever convicted for their child's Commission of a mass shooting this verdict potentially bodess poorly for Miss crumley's husband James who will be tried separately in March of 2024 today we'll dive into Jennifer crumley's trial how the prosecutor secured this historic conviction and what it means for future cases on December 3rd 2021 Jennifer and James Crumbley were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter one for each person their son murdered in a press conference confence Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald explained her rationale for this historic indictment I have tremendous compassion and empathy for parents who have children who are struggling and at risk for whatever reason and I am by no means saying that an active shooter situation should result in a criminal prosecution against parents however McDonald argued this case was unique because there are numerous flashing warning signs that should have compelled the parents to intervene in particular when the parents decided to leave their son at school the day of the shooting despite being brought in to discuss Ethan's violent drawing whose captions included my life is useless blood everywhere and the thoughts won't stop help me after the announcement of charges the Crumley briefly LED state and federal Authorities on a Manhunt the pair were finally found hiding in a Detroit commercial building and arrested in February 2022 Oakland County Judge Julie Nicholson concluded that there was enough evidence for the Crumley to be tried for involuntary manslaughter the def defendants appealed arguing prosecutors lacked probable cause to bring the case to trial because the parents had no reason to believe their son posed a threat to himself or others and thus they were not legally responsible for his actions but in March 2023 a three-judge panel of the Michigan court of appeals unanimously upheld judge Nicholson's finding a probable cause in the ruling the court argued that a jury could decide that a reasonably foreseeable outcome of the parents alleged gross negligence was their son committing a mass shooting that day the record squarely supports that but for defendants acts and omissions EC would not have killed the victims that day on the basis of the evidence presented at the preliminary exam a reasonable FactFinder could conclude that EC would not have been able to shoot and kill four students but for the defendant's decision to purchase their mentally Disturbed son a handgun their failure to properly secure the gun and most importantly their refusal to remove EC from school when he made over threat threats to hurt other people on October 4th 2023 the Michigan Supreme Court denied the crumley's final appeal and ordered the pair to stand trial the following month the trial court granted James and Jennifer's requests to be tried separately Jennifer was to go first on January 25th 20124 with Oakland County circuit court judge Cheryl Matthews presiding in opening statements assistant prosecutor Mark ke told the jury that Jennifer is criminally responsible for her son's Rampage because she and her husband failed to undertake a number of tragically small and easy things that would have prevented this from happening for example while Jennifer shared her private concern with her husband in Facebook messages she neglected to mention that her son had access to a gun when they met with school staff to discuss their son's violent drawing hours before the shooting spree had school officials searched Ethan's bag they would have found his gun and while such a meeting could last for up to an hour the crumes ended theirs after 11 minutes while refusing to take their son home even though Mrs Crumley didn't pull the trigger on November 30th she's responsible for those deaths Keith said in response Jennifer's attorney Shannon Smith began her opening statement by declaring Band-Aids don't fix bullet holes quoting Taylor Swift's song Bad Blood that was a choice Smith argued the prosecution was trying to put a Band-Aid on real problems that cannot be fixed by putting the parents on trial the evidence is going to show you that Jennifer Crumbley did the best she could as a mother to a child grew up into a teenager and had no way to know what was going to happen Smith also told the jury that James was solely responsible for locking up the family firearms and Mrs Crumbley had nothing to do with that part in their case in Chief the prosecution portrayed the Crumley as negligent parents who ignored their sons increasingly erratic and paranoid Behavior the prosecution showed the jury text messages from March 17th 2021 where Ethan claimed the house is haunted he photographed a demon in the house throwing Bulls while making clear I am not joking it effed up the kitchen at the exact moment he sent these texts the parents were taking pictures of themselves with their horses instead of responding when their son texted again 25 minutes later asking can you at least text back Jennifer did not respond and waited 90 minutes to call him on March 19th James texted his wife that their son looked like he had way too much to drink in response Jennifer opted not to condemn the underrage drinking but to justify it well he was really worked up and out of control so I can see why on March 20th Ethan said he was tidying up his room until clothes started flying off the shelf which received no response from his mother on November 26th James purchased his son a 9mm 6our semi-automatic pistol which Ethan promptly posted on Instagram just got my new Beauty today Sig sour 9mm on November 29th the day before the shooting a teacher reported Ethan for searching for bullets on a cell phone during class when his mother was contacted by the school about the incident she asked her son did you at least show them a pick of your new gun to which Ethan replied no I didn't show them the pick my God after Ethan says he told officials about he and his mother's trip to the shooting range over the weekend and that looking up bullets was a harmless act Jennifer wrote LOL I'm not mad you have to learn not to get caught to which her son replied I know LOL a recurring Theme by the prosecution was that Jennifer cared more about her horses than her son Kira penck Jennifer's horse trainer testified that Jennifer referred to her son as weird and wished he did normal kid things when prosecutor McDonald asked if penck ever heard the defendant talk about her son positively penck replied there was nothing truly positive when she was talking about him there were quite a few times that she had voiced that he was an oopsie baby before trial defense Council Smith successfully moved moved to exclude evidence that Jennifer had an affair prior to the Oxford school shooting but that changed thanks to a line of questioning from Smith herself during the cross-examination of Brian MOS a high school friend of Jennifer's Smith suggested that MOS had made three varying statements to the police because he felt intimidated by the officers that's when MOS said he worried his affair with Jennifer would become public if he told police things that were helpful to her after prosecutor ke objected on the grounds that this was close to opening the door to topics previously deemed inadmissible Smith agreed to open said door M then testified that he told the police in his first interview that he and Jennifer had an extramarital affair and their relationship was sexual in arguing their case prosecutors called 27 Witnesses including law enforcement officials Jennifer's friends and school officials Jennifer's Council only called one witness Jennifer Crumbley herself in her two days of testimony Jennifer told the court rep that her son had a sarcastic sense of humor and that the text messages about ghosts and hallucinations were just jokes and not a cry for help Jennifer said her son joked for years that their house was haunted and sometimes played on a Ouija board in the basement Jennifer did Express that her son went through a period of depression in 2021 following the death of a grandparent family pet and because of poor grades but when asked if she thought her son needed mental health treatment she said no and that the concerning text messages were just just him messing around now the jury had previously heard exerpts from Ethan's Journal where he wrote my parents won't listen to me about help or a therapist and expressed his desire to shoot up the school and that he would get a 9mm pistol the same gun his dad would buy him days before using it to kill four classmates but Jennifer said that she never saw those journal entries nor did she hear her son ever asking for a therapist she also testified that she never thought her son was a danger to others as a parent you spend your whole life trying to protect your child from other dangers Jennifer said you never would think you have to protect your child from harming somebody else as to Firearms Jennifer testified that it was her husband's job to store all three of the family's guns prosecutors argued that the 9mm used in the shooting was not safely locked away and Ethan knew where to find it when law enforcement executed a search warrant on the house they found two firearms in the lock safe that used the code 0 0 0 regarding the day of the shooting Jennifer agreed that she should have taken her son home but chose not to school officials previously testified they told the parents to immediately get their son mental health care and even gave suggestions of places to get care that day but Jennifer described the meeting as brief and nonchalant and claimed the school officials said their son wasn't a risk and could stay at school as prosecutors questioned Jennifer's vigilance as a parent they revealed she used the app Adult FriendFinder to try and arrange sexual meetups 2 days before the shooting defense Council objected to this line of evidence but it was allowed to rebut Jennifer's testimony that she had only one Affair under questioning Jennifer said she would occasionally meet Mr MOS at a hotel during work hours and invite other people but perhaps the most remarkable moment of her testimony came when Jennifer expressed no regrets for her actions and would not change a single thing about how she parented her son I've asked myself if I would have done anything differently and I wouldn't have I wish he would have killed us instead after Jennifer wrapped up her testimony both sides moved to closing arguments it's a rare case prosecutor McDonald told the jury it takes some really egregious facts it takes the unthinkable and she has done the unthinkable and because of that four kids have died throughout trial the prosecution argued Jennifer paid more attention to her two horses and her extramarital Affairs than her son's needs causing her to Miss clear warning signs that her son was on the verge of committing unspeakable violence responding to Jennifer's testimony prosecutor McDonald remarked the facts do not support Jennifer's version of events and implored the jury to find her guilty in a frankly Meandering 90-minute response defense attorney Smith hit back at prosecutors saying there was nothing that could have been done to prevent the shooting it was unforeseeable no one expected this no one could have expected this including the crumes Smith said Smith told the jury that neither She nor Jennifer were a perfect person or a perfect parent and suggested it would set a dangerous precedent if a court deems parents legally responsible for everything their children do including stuff that flies even under the most attentive parents radar as an example Smith opined that if she failed to monitor her son's phone use and he sexed a girl if that would make her guilty of child pornography I'm asking you to find Jennifer Crumbley not guilty not just for Jennifer Crumbley but for every mother who's out there doing the best they can who could easily be in her shoes 17 jurors sat through the entirety of the 7-Day trial not knowing who would serve and who would be relegated to alternate status on February 5th the final panel of six men and six women were selected and the jury began to deliberate Jennifer crumley's fate during trial the prosecution Advanced two different legal theories to argue Jennifer was guilty of involuntary manslaughter one was that Jennifer committed gross negligence by storing the gun and bullets that allowed her son to access the murder weapon thereby causing the death of four students under Michigan law gross negligence is more than mere carelessness it means willfully disregarding the results to others that might follow from an act or failure to act Jennifer knew of the danger to another meaning she knew there was a situation that required her to take ordinary care to avoid injuring another and finally Jennifer failed to use ordinary care to prevent injuring another when to a reasonable person it must have been apparent that the result was likely to be serious injury the prosecution's second theory was Jennifer failed to perform her legal duty to control her son and prevent him from harming others under the legal Duty Theory the jury must find that the prosecution has proved the following four elements Beyond A Reasonable Doubt first Jennifer had a legal duty to prevent her minor child from intentionally or recklessly harming others a duty which only arises if Jennifer a knows or has reason to know that they have the ability to control their minor child and B Jennifer knows of the necessity and opportunity for exercising such control second Jennifer knew a facts that gave rise to that Duty third Jennifer willfully neglected or refused to perform that Duty and her failure to perform it was grossly negligent to human life and fourth any or all of the students deaths were the result of defendants failure to exercise reasonable care to prevent vent Ethan from harming others that Jennifer had the ability to control Ethan and she knew of the necessity and opportunity for exercising said control on the first day of deliberations the jury asked the judge two questions the first question sought clarification about which of the two theories of involuntary manslaughter the prosecutors must prove in response judge Matthews referred the jury to the jury instructions explaining how the jury can reach a unanimous verdict regarding the legal Duty and gross negligence theories those theories are two different ways to prove the same crime either or both of these theories if proven are sufficient to establish the crime of involuntary manslaughter it is not necessary that all of you agree on which theory has been proven as long as you all agree that the prosecutor has proved at least one of these theories Beyond A Reasonable Doubt the second question posed by jurors was whether they can infer anything based on evidence or Witnesses the prosecution did not present specifically whether the jury could infer anything by the prosecution not putting Ethan on the stand or anyone else who could answer how he got the gun judge Matthews summon the jury out of deliberations to tell them no they could not you can only make your decision based on evidence in this case Matthews told the jury make your decision only on what I let in and nothing else after 11 hours of deliberation over 2 days the jury found Jennifer Crumley guilty on all four counts of involuntary manslaughter Jennifer faces a maximum penalty of 15 in prison for each of the four counts with sentencing scheduled for April 9th but remember we here at legal eagal aren't satisfied with some abstract maximum penalty that's lazy oddly enough though this is one of the few times we're talking about a maximum penalty is actually somewhat grounded in reality in Michigan a felony sentence usually sounds something like this the defendant is sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison what that means is that the defendant must serve 5 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole if they're not granted parole they serve the whole 15 years minus credit for time served good behavior and other things and it's here I'll say that Jennifer already has 2 years of pre-trial confinement that will almost certainly count towards any prison sentence she serves the prosecutor's office has already stated that Jennifer sentences must be run concurrently so we're not looking at a maximum possible sentence of 60 years which 15 years Time 4 counts the maximum sentence is just 15 years the judge's real job is to determine the minimum sentence how much time will Jennifer spend in prison before she's eligible for parole in Michigan involuntary manslaughter doesn't have any kind of mandatory minimum sentence so the minimum sentence will be controlled by Michigan's felony sentencing guidelines like the federal sentencing guidelines Michigan sentencing guidelines are only advisory a judge can depart from the recommendation either higher or lower as long as it's explained on the record and reasonable really the only limitation is that the minimum sentence can be no more than 2/3 of the maximum sentence so in a worst case scenario if your maximum sentence is something like 30 years you have to be eligible for parole after 20 in this case with a 15-year maximum sentence the judge could sentence Jennifer anywhere from probation to 10 years before she's eligible for Perle that's it that's the range so with that framework in mind what is Jennifer going to get look I am not an expert in Michigan law but it looks to me under the guidelines that her recommended minimum sentence is about 3 and a half to 7 years according to the Barone defense firm in Michigan the average minimum sentence for involuntary manslaughter in Michigan is about 5 to 7 years in prison but that average mostly encompasses cases where a drunk driver kills someone that's the most common circumstance where involuntary manslaughter is charged a vehicular homicide Jennifer's case is very different in a lot of ways from that kind of case so it's hard to predict whether the judge will give her a sentence higher or lower than that this case is novel The Judge can't really make a comparison to another case and say hey this guy over here got something similar all that said though it really wouldn't surprise me if Jennifer receives the maximum sentence and isn't eligible for parole until 10 years after Jennifer crumley's conviction gun control Advocates praised the jury for their unprecedented verdict Josh Horwitz co-director of the center for gun violence Solutions said Jennifer crumley's conviction showed the jury understood that in today's America purchasing a handgun for a troubled teenager was grossly negligent and put the community at risk George gascan the district attorney for Los Angeles County suggested this case would change the way prosecutors handle school shootings and provide a template for pursuing similar cases I think in many ways this case will certainly make prosecutors look at their work a little differently when it comes to parents who are neglectful in terms of how they handle weapons around their home making weapons available to their kids but not everyone celebrated the verdict some like detroit-based criminal lawyer Michael Boda said the jury got this wrong calling the verdict an overreach that should have ended in a hung jury or not guilty I have a problem with the legal concept of parents causing their children to commit crimes by being bad parents that's what I think this case represents and that's the dangerous part University of Michigan law professor eal Yanka was not surprised that prosecutors took this path given we live in a country where there are just too many school shootings but he also expressed worry that this President would be abused by prosecutors to Target the most politically vulnerable and force plea deals from parents particularly those who aren't in the National Spotlight like the Crumley having this tool as a way of threatening or warning or coercing or pushing parents to accept plea Bargains like so much of the criminal law I'm afraid that it's going to consume lives quite out of sight but University of Michigan law professor Eve Primus told the New York Times that the facts of of the Crumley case were so unique that she doesn't foresee a wave of similar prosecutions I have heard many people say they think a guilty verdict in this case will open the floodgates to these kinds of prosecutions going forward to be honest I'm not convinced that's true here prosecutors presented uniquely damning evidence that Jennifer should have known that her son was a threat like the text messages about ghosts and demons and the fact that she met with school officials just hours before the shooting could more prosecutors file charges emboldened by this kind of ruling and the verdict opine Professor Primus sure do I think they'll be successful around the country getting charges to stick if they don't have the requisite facts that can demonstrate real knowledge no whatever sentence befalls Jennifer it is almost certain she will appeal her conviction so what issues will be raised on appeal and How likely is Miss Crumley to succeed in an interview with Detroit criminal defense attorneys David Crips and Gabby silver they pointed to at least three main evidentiary objections to be litigated first the attorneys argue that the surveillance video from the actual school shooting should never have been shown to the jurors which the prosecutors did while questioning assistant principal Christy Gibson Marshall when the emotion takes over the courtroom how are the jurors going to ignore that when coming to a decision said silver second the journal found in Ethan's backpack which said I have zero help for my mental problems and it's causing me to shoot up the effing school was improperly admitted the shooter never testified silver said he can't be cross-examined about what does this mean why were you writing this is this true the jury is forced to take it at face value at this point and the journal apparently had an effect on the verdict after the trial the jury forers told NBC's Today Show that some of the jurors were influenced by the Journal third Jennifer's attorneys will likely assert that their clients Affairs were unduly prejudicial and should have been excluded from evidence I don't know why in the world you would let that in silver said I really don't you're trying to portray her as a good hypervigilant parent and you can't let in all this testimony that's going to be damaging to her under any circumstances there certainly could be other issues raised on appeal as well like whether it was constitutionally proper to hold Jennifer criminally responsible for the killings at all but How likely an appeal is to succeed is anybody's guess at the end of the day most appeals are lost but this is a really novel case silver said so I think given the impact of this case given the impact that it can have across the board to parents everywhere frankly the courts are going to take a hard look at it now those attorneys are going to have a lot of late nights working on that appeal they're going to need a lot of great coffee which they can get from today's sponsor Trade coffee trade's great because 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Channel: LegalEagle

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Keywords: Legaleagle, legal eagle, breaking news, case, congress, court case, crime, guilty, jury, latest news, news, not guilty, political, politics, politics news, scotus, supreme court, the trial, trial, Verdict, copyright, law advice, legal analysis, lawyer, attorney, Real lawyer, Real law review

Id: GWXv0EIeIGI

Length: 24min 48sec (1488 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 27 2024