Current:Home > NewsHer son was a school shooter. Now, a jury will decide if Jennifer Crumbley is guilty, too.-LoTradeCoin
Her son was a school shooter. Now, a jury will decide if Jennifer Crumbley is guilty, too.
View Date:2024-12-24 00:00:22
The fate of a convicted mass shooter's mother is in the hands of a jury after she took the stand in her own criminal trial on Friday in a case that raises precedent-setting questions for the rest of the nation about a parent's responsibility to stop a murderous child.
Jennifer Crumbley, the first parent in America charged with involuntary manslaughter in a mass school shooting, sought to portray herself on the stand as an involved, loving mother. She was questioned by prosecutors Friday before both sides delivered closing arguments to the jury, which will begin deliberations Monday morning.
Prosecutors argued she knew her son Ethan was struggling with alarming mental health issues, including on the day he killed four children at his Michigan high school in November 2021. She and her husband are accused of buying the shooter the gun he used rather than getting him help, and then fleeing afterward.
Legal experts say the case could have huge impact on how society views parents’ culpability when their children access guns and go on to cause harm with them. But whether the outcome encourages prosecutors to bring future charges against parents remains to be seen, two law experts told USA TODAY.
“This could be a groundbreaking case,” Adam Winkler at the UCLA School of Law said. “This is a case that could create real incentives for parents to be much more cautious giving their children access to firearms.”
Ethan Crumbley, 15 at the time of the shooting, was sentenced in December to life without the possibility of parole plus an additional 24 years.
Mom of shooter takes the stand in her own defense
Asked on Thursday by her defense attorney if she felt that she had failed as a parent, as she noted in a message to her ex-lover following the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley said: "I don't feel that I'm a failure as a parent. But at that point in time, I felt I had failed."
Crumbley told jurors that as a parent, she saw her role as being someone who protected her son from harm, not protecting others from him. "That's what blew my mind ... that my child harmed" other people, she said, adding: "I wish he would have killed us instead."
Prosecutors questioned Crumbley Friday on what they said were inconsistencies in her story, focusing on whether she was fleeing and hiding from law enforcement in early December when she and her husband were arrested after a manhunt.
Under questioning by the prosecution, she acknowledged there was nothing stopping her from taking her son home on the day of the shooting after being called in to talk with counselors about his mental health.
“And on November the 30th of 2021 at 12:51 p.m., you could have been with him,” Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast said, referring to the time the shooting in the school began.
“I could have, yes,” Crumbley said.
“And you didn’t,” Keast said.
She said no.
In an average criminal trial, a defendant would not usually testify, Winkler said: “It’s Criminal Law 101. You do not allow the defendant to take the stand, it doesn’t matter whether they’re innocent or they’re guilty.”
“It’s the last act of a desperate defense,” Winkler said about putting the defendant on the stand.
University of Michigan law professor Frank Vandervort, however, said he wasn’t surprised the defense chose to put Crumbley on the stand, and said it was likely to gain sympathy from the jurors.
“I think the jury almost needs to hear from her,” Vandervort said. “I think the jury is going to want to know, ‘How does she explain these things?’”
Has there ever been a case like this before?
Whether the Crumbley parents are convicted or acquitted, the case could have broad implications because of the unique and extreme factors involved, and the rare legal theory of holding parents accountable for their children’s violent actions.
Winkler said whether to charge parents and what to charge them with is a very difficult decision for prosecutors to make. Parents of shooters also suffer greatly after these tragedies, he said, and it can be very difficult to prove a direct line between parents’ actions (or lack thereof) and their child’s actions. If parents’ behavior doesn’t seem especially “blameworthy,” it can be especially difficult in more gun-friendly states where children regularly partake in activities like hunting with parents, Winkler said.
Parents have done jail time before when their children have gotten their hands on guns and shot people, but they have usually been for lesser charges. Vandervort noted two other examples: The mother of a 6-year-old who shot his teacher in Newport News, Virginia, last year was sentenced for child neglect and firearms offenses; and the father of the adult gunman in the deadly 2022 Fourth of July parade shooting in Illinois served time for sponsoring a firearm application for his son.
Notably also in Michigan, a man who lived in the same house as a 6-year-old boy who shot and killed classmate Kayla Rolland in 2000 was charged and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter for leaving the gun accessible to the child in a shoebox. Much different circumstances than the Crumbley case, Vandervort said.
“That we have to go back 20 years to find a similar case exemplifies how really unusual this case is,” Vandervort said.
How does the outcome of this trial impact future cases?
Prosecutors have said the “egregious” aspects of the case include the clear signs the shooter was in mental distress leading up to the shooting and that his parents ignored it. They claimed the shooter should have been taken for immediate treatment the morning of the shooting when his parents were called into school to discuss troubling drawings and statements he had written on a math assignment.
But the parents did not want to. Prosecutors also said the parents bought the murder weapon as a gift for their son days before the shooting instead of getting him treatment.
Those are all extreme factors, Winkler and Vandervort agreed. The two were split on whether they thought the Crumbley parents’ trials could have future legal implications such as encouraging prosecutors to bring charges against the parents of future mass shooters.
Winkler thought that was certainly possible, but acknowledged that while there will likely be future school shootings under similar circumstances, the evidence may not be as strong as in the Crumbley case.
“I think this case could be a landmark precedent that encourages more criminal charges against the parents of school shooters,” Winkler said.
Vandervort thought there would be very few future cases quite like this, and said it’s a very legally difficult case to argue despite the extreme circumstances. But regardless of the verdict, he said the local community would feel a sense of justice after hearing all the facts come out.
And either way, the fact that two parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter for the four lives their son took with the gun they bought him should send a strong message that parents must be extremely cautious with guns in the home.
“This could be a turning point, if there’s a conviction, where we see more attention being paid to parents of school shooters, and there may be some good in that,” Winkler said.
“On the one hand, it’s sad because the parents have suffered a great loss too. On the other hand, we live in a very heavily armed society. We need to do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. And that’s going to rely on each and every gun owner to do their part to keep their firearms secure and not provide firearms to people who can’t be trusted.”
veryGood! (93)
Related
- Indiana in the top five of the College Football Playoff rankings? You've got to be kidding
- NGO rescue ship saves 258 migrants off Libya in two operations
- 'The Golden Bachelor' recap: Who remains after first-date drama and three eliminations?
- Dick Butkus, Hall of Fame linebacker and Chicago Bears and NFL icon, dies at 80
- Why the US celebrates Veterans Day and how the holiday has changed over time
- An aid group says artillery fire killed 11 and injured 90 in a Sudanese city
- How Love Is Blind's Milton Johnson Really Feels About Lydia Gonzalez & Uche Okoroha's Relationship
- This 50% Off Deal Is the Perfect Time to Buy That Ninja Foodi Flip Air Fry Oven You've Wanted
- Pentagon secrets leaker Jack Teixeira set to be sentenced, could get up to 17 years in prison
- Goshdarnit, 'The Golden Bachelor' is actually really good
Ranking
- She's a trans actress and 'a warrior.' Now, this 'Emilia Pérez' star could make history.
- Dancing With the Stars' Mark Ballas and Wife BC Jean Share Miscarriage Story in Moving Song
- How Love Is Blind's Milton Johnson Really Feels About Lydia Gonzalez & Uche Okoroha's Relationship
- Biden administration hasn't changed policy on border walls, Mayorkas says
- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich had a stroke earlier this month, is expected to make full recovery
- Ancient gold treasures depicting Norse gods unearthed in Norway: A very special find
- Morocco begins providing cash to families whose homes were destroyed by earthquake
- An Airbnb renter allegedly overstayed more than 520 days without paying – but says the homeowner owes her money
Recommendation
-
Digital Finance Research Institute Introduce
-
Britney Spears' Dad Jamie Spears Hospitalized With Bacterial Infection
-
Savannah Bananas announce 2024 Banana Ball World Tour schedule, cruise
-
Police officers won't face charges in fatal shooting of protester at 'Cop City'
-
Georgia public universities and colleges see enrollment rise by 6%
-
The Danger Upstream: In Disposing Coal Ash, One of These States is Not Like the Others
-
An Airbnb renter allegedly overstayed more than 520 days without paying – but says the homeowner owes her money
-
Inside the manhunt for a detainee and his alleged prison guard lover