The trial for the mother of the teen who killed four students and injured several others in a shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan began Tuesday with jury selection.
Authorities charged Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, James Crumbley, with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter after their son, then 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, opened fire at his school in 2021. The elder Crumbleys are being tried separately, with James Crumbley’s trial scheduled to begin March 5, Reuters reported.
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty in 2022 to two dozen charges, including terrorism and multiple counts of first-degree murder. Last month, a judge sentenced him to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.
[ Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley sentenced to life in prison without parole ]
In court records obtained Monday by the Detroit Free Press, his attorneys said he plans to appeal the sentence and that they will advise him not to testify in his parents’ trials. At his sentencing hearing, Ethan Crumbley told a judge of his parents, “They did not know and I did not tell them what I planned to do, so they are not at fault,” The Associated Press reported.
Ethan Crumbley’s mental health is expected to be a key factor in the trials. Prosecutors said the couple ignored their son’s mental instability, despite his attempts to get help, and bought the gun he used in the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting as a Christmas present.
The Crumbleys have maintained that they had no way of knowing that their son would open fire at his school and that the gun he used had been safely stored, according to the Free Press.
[ Oxford High School shooting: Teen gunman pleads guilty ]
The case is believed to be the first of its kind, in which parents are facing charges for a mass shooting carried out by their child, Reuters reported. The mother of a 6-year-old boy who shot his elementary school teacher last year in Virginia was charged with child neglect for “reckless decisions” leading up to the shooting and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Prosecutors previously said that social media posts showed that Crumbley planned the November 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School in advance. He shot and killed Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17. Seven other people were injured.