PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — Prosecutors arguing that a Michigan school shooter's mother is partly responsible for the deaths of four students told jurors Thursday that the tragedy could have been easily prevented when she was confronted with his violent drawings just a few hours earlier.
Jennifer Crumbley was aware of her son's deteriorating mental health and knew that a gun drawn on a math assignment resembled the one that Ethan Crumbley had used at a shooting range, assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said.
But instead of taking the boy home after being called to a meeting, Jennifer and husband James Crumbley allowed him to stay at Oxford High School, where he killed four students and wounded several others hours later.
“Even though she didn't pull the trigger, she's responsible for those deaths,” Keast said in his opening statement.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 30, 2021, attack. The case against her and her husband, 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. Prosecutors say the Crumbleys were grossly negligent and that their son's actions were foreseeable.
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 and the phrase, "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."
“The two people with all of the information, all of the background to put this drawing into context, were James and Jennifer Crumbley,” Keast said. “They didn’t share any of it.”
Defense attorney Shannon Smith told jurors that the 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.
“Band-Aids don't stop bullet holes,” she said, quoting a Taylor Swift song. “That's what this case is all about — the prosecutor attempting to put a Band-Aid on problems that can't be fixed with a Band-Aid.”
There was tension in the courtroom after jurors saw a brief video captured by a school security camera on the day of the shooting. Prosecutor Karen McDonald claimed Jennifer Crumbley and Smith were “sobbing” in violation of the judge's request that people control their emotions during the trial.
“We were not sobbing or making a scene," Smith said, her voice rising. “All my eye makeup is still on.”
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 teen's 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.
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