PONTIAC, MI — A prosecutor urged jurors to convict the father of a Michigan school shooter Wednesday, saying he ignored the “easiest and most glaring opportunities” to prevent the killing of four students, especially when he was confronted with his son’s violent drawing in class.
Instead of taking Ethan Crumbley home, James Crumbley left Oxford High School with his wife and gave DoorDash a run, passing by their house during the birth, prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
He searched the house only after hearing that someone had shot up the school to make sure the gun was safe. That’s when he calls 911.
“This case is not about holding James Crumbley accountable for what his son did,” McDonald said. “It’s about his legal duty and his inability to carry it out.”
Crumbley, 47, is charged with involuntary manslaughter for failing to safely secure 15-year-old Ethan’s gun and failing to seek help for the boy’s mental distress.
Parents in Michigan have a “legal duty” to exercise reasonable care to prevent their child from harming others, prosecutors said.
“James Crumbley was given the easiest and most high-profile opportunity to prevent the deaths of four students and he did nothing,” McDonald said. “He did nothing – over and over again.”
The boy took the gun to school, killing four students and injuring another seven people on November 30, 2021. Investigators said there was another cable inside the package that could have locked the gun case.
Ethan’s mental state deteriorated: he made a macabre drawing of a gun and a wounded man for a math assignment and added disturbing sentences: “The thoughts don’t stop.” Help me. Blood everywhere. The world is dead.”
But the parents refused to take Ethan home after a brief meeting at school and only accepted a list of mental health providers. They did not tell school staff that James Crumbley had purchased a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol just four days earlier.
Ethan called it “my beauty” on social media. He took it out of his backpack and started shooting. No one had checked the bag.
Earlier in November 2021, he wrote in his diary that he needed help for his mental health “but my parents don’t listen to me, so I can’t get help.”
Attorney Mariell Lehman dropped her case after calling only one witness: Ethan’s aunt. James Crumbley declined to testify, telling the judge he understood the risks and benefits of speaking to the jury.
“He didn’t know that his son knew where those firearms were,” Lehman told the jury. “The lack of evidence…may be your reasonable doubt.”
The victims were Justin Shilling, 17, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Hana St. Juliana, 14, and Tate Myre, 16.
The Crumbleys are the first American parents charged with criminal responsibility for a mass school shooting committed by a child. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last month.
At her own trial, she told the jury she wouldn’t have done anything differently.
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, is serving a life sentence for murder and terrorism.
___
Follow Ed White on X, formerly Twitter: https://twitter.com/edwritez
