Oakland County jury finds Jennifer Crumbley guilty
PONTIAC, Mich. — A jury has found the mother of the Oxford High School shooter guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter, capping an emotional 7-day trial that many viewed as a litmus test for holding parents criminally responsible for their children’s actions.
As the 12-member jury read their verdict in Oakland County Circuit Court, Jennifer Crumbley closed her eyes and looked down. Jurors deliberated for 11 hours before arriving at a decision.
The verdict caps a nationally-watched trial that marked the first time a parent had been tried in connection with a mass shooting by his or her child. Prosecutors portrayed Jennifer Crumbley, 45, as a negligent parent who ignored signs her teen son was in crisis, never got him help and bought him a 9mm gun anyway.
But her attorney described Crumbley as a caring parent and there was no way the Nov. 30, 2021 shooting was foreseeable.
More than 50 people, mostly media, filled the courtroom Tuesday to hear the verdict. Craig Shilling, the father of one of the teens who died during the 2021 shooting.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, who has been vocal about Jennifer Crumbley’s negligence in her historic decision to charge Jennifer and her husband, James, did not comment after the verdict because a gag order remained in place by Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews. Crumbley’s attorney, Shannon Smith, also didn’t comment.
Crumbley’s conviction/acquittal now sets the stage for her husband, James, who will be tried next. His trial is scheduled to start March 5.
Four teens were killed in the 2021 shooting: Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Family members of Madisyn, Hana and Justin were in Oakland County Circuit Court throughout the trial.
Two-week trial
Prosecutors, who rested their case Thursday after calling 21 witnesses and introducing 400 exhibits, had to prove Crumbley showed gross negligence and didn’t exercise ordinary care by ignoring her son’s mental state and not getting him help, while still buying him a gun. Crumbley was the defense’s only witness, as she took the stand in her own defense.
A journal found in the shooter’s backup detailed his plans to shoot up Oxford High School but Crumbley had maintained that she’d never read it and that she also didn’t read her son’s text messages.
The guilty verdict means the jury found Crumbley did not store the firearm and ammunition in a way that allowed the shooter to have access to it and wasn’t grossly negligent in her actions.
A journal found in the shooter’s backup detailed his plans to shoot up Oxford High School but Crumbley had maintained that she’d never read it and that she also didn’t read her son’s text messages.
The guilty verdict means the jury found Crumbley did not store the firearm and ammunition in a way that allowed the shooter to have access to it and wasn’t grossly negligent in her actions.
“It’s not enough that the defendant’s acts made it possible for the crime to occur,” Matthews said before deliberations began Monday. “You must find beyond a reasonable doubt that the deaths were a natural or reasonable result of the defendant’s acts.”
Caring mom? Or grossly negligent?
Attorneys sought to paint opposite pictures of Crumbley throughout the trial: Prosecutors portrayed her as an inattentive parent more concerned with her horses and and an affair she was having at the time than her son, even when he expressed concerns about staying home alone and having hallucinations.
She also didn’t ask about her son for 10 days after she was arrested in early December 2021, according to audio recordings of her calls played in court Friday. Crumbley said she’d been told her calls would be flagged if she mentioned his name.
But according to Smith, Crumbley was an engaged parent who made the judgment calls she thought were right based on information she had at the time.
Prosecutors’ witnesses included school officials who raised concerns about the shooter’s mental health, survivors of the shooting and law enforcement officers who investigated.
“She has done the unthinkable, and because of that, four kids have died,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in closing arguments Friday.
But Crumbley’s attorney, Shannon Smith, accused prosecutors of purposely choosing the evidence they showed jurors to make Crumbley look like a negligent parent who ignored warning signs of the shooter’s downward spiral. Smith suggested the shooter was actually not mentally ill, but a “master manipulator.”
Ethan Crumbley is now serving a life sentence for the deaths of four students who were killed in the shooting: Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Family members of Madisyn, Hana and Justin were in Oakland County Circuit Court throughout the trial.
Craig Shilling, whose son, Justin, was killed, took a leave from work to attend the trial.
“I want to be there first-hand to see it through, that has been my goal through everything,” said Shilling, right before jury selection began in late January. “And I feel there is pertinent information that hasn’t come out and could come out. I want to get it right from the horse’s mouth. … I don’t want to miss the opening statements or anything.”
Crumbley testified son never asked for help
Crumbley defended her parenting during her nearly four hours of testimony at the tail end of the trial, saying she didn’t feel like a failure. She also denied her son ever asked for mental health treatment before he opened fire on his classmates. This is despite comments Crumbley made to coworkers and a friend the day of and week after the shooting about feeling like she had failed her son.
She denied that her son asked for mental health treatment in spring 2021, let alone that she had laughed at him when he asked, something the shooter told his friend over text. She also denied that he was depressed, though she sent a text to the mom of the shooter’s friend that she worried about him seeming depressed.
Crumbley said former Oxford Dean of Students Nick Ejak and Hopkins didn’t mandate that the shooter be taken home. Ejak and Hopkins both testified that they did not view the shooter as a threat but were more concerned about his mental health.
Crumbley said she wishes her son would’ve acted differently, but even looking back, she would not have changed her parenting decisions.
“I wish he would’ve killed us instead,” Crumbley said of herself and her husband, James.