ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – A judge on Thursday ordered the parents of a 15-year-old boy charged with killing four students at his Michigan high school to stand trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.
Rochester Hills District Court Judge Julie Nicholson said following the preliminary examination for Jennifer and James Crumbley that she found enough evidence to send their case to circuit court.
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They are charged with involuntary manslaughter and accused of making the gun used in the shooting available to the teen. The couple is also accused of failing to intervene when he showed signs of mental distress at home and at school.
Ethan Crumbley is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, terrorism and gun charges in the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit. Six other students and a teacher were wounded.
The gun used in the shooting was given to Ethan Crumbley as an early Christmas present, prosecutors have said.
“The court finds that the deaths of the four victims could have been avoided if James and Jennifer Crumbley exercised ordinary care and diligence in the care of their son,” Nicholson said.
Nicholson said prosecutors showed Ethan Crumbley presented a danger to the community and “that danger was apparent to an ordinary mind.” Testimony showed that Ethan Crumbley was a “troubled young man” and his parents knew it, she said.
“But they purchased a gun which he believed was his,” Nicholson added.
The Crumbleys’ attorneys insisted the couple didn’t know their son might plan an attack and didn’t make the gun easy to find in their home, but Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said Thursday that Ethan Crumbley reached out to his parents for help.
And while no help was forthcoming, the coming trouble was foreseeable, she said.
“You're allowed to be a terrible parent,” McDonald said. “if that's all this was, we wouldn't be here.”
On the morning of the shooting, Ethan’s parents were summoned to the school and confronted with his drawings, which included a handgun and the words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” Authorities said the parents refused to take him home after the 13-minute meeting.
Ethan's counselor testified Thursday that he told the teen's parents at that meeting that he believed their son was a threat to himself and needed mental health support.
“I said as soon as possible, today if possible,” Shawn Hopkins said. But, he testified, Jennifer Crumbley told him, “Today was not an option because they had to return to work.”
“I wrote Ethan a pass back to class,” Hopkins continued. “I told him, ‘I just want you to know I care about you.’ I don’t remember them saying goodbye (to Ethan).”
Prosecutors alluded to a disconnect between Ethan and his parents, including texts he made to a friend in which he talks about his “dark side.”
“In a text on April 5, 2021, Ethan writes: ‘Now my mom thinks I take drugs. Like she thinks the reason why I’m so mad and sad all the time is because I take drugs, and she doesn’t worry about my mental health,’” assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said. “And then he writes: ’They make me feel like I’m the problem.’”
Testimony also was given Thursday about what was written in a journal found in Ethan's backpack following the shooting. Authorities have said the gun used in the shooting was hidden in the backpack that day.
One entry dated Nov. 29 stated, “'first off, I got my gun... second, the shooting is tomorrow, I have access to the gun and ammo,'” read Oakland County sheriff’s Lt. Timothy Willis.
Another page featured the drawing of a bullet being fired into the back of what appears to be a person's head. “Just above it, it says ‘the first victim has to be pretty girl with a future so she can suffer like me,’” Willis read.
Willis also said another entry read, "'I have fully mentally lost it after years of fighting with my dark side. My parents won’t listen. I have zero help with my mental problems and its causing me to shoot up the (expletive) school.’”
But Shannon Smith, Jennifer Crumbley’s lawyer, pointed out that the journal also contained the entry: “I’m sorry for this mom and dad. I’m not trying to hurt you by doing this. I have to do this,” and “I will have to find where my dad hid my 9 mm before I can shoot the school.”
“The element that the prosecution in this case can never prove is that Jennifer Crumbley or James Crumbley knew that their son was going to commit a school shooting," Smith said in her closing statement.
The Crumbleys remain jailed on $500,000 bond. The case against them is highly unusual because parents are rarely held criminally responsible for teens accused in mass school shootings.
Last month, Ethan Crumbley’s attorneys filed a notice of an insanity defense.
He is lodged alone in a cell in the Oakland County Jail's clinic to keep him from seeing and hearing adult inmates. Defense attorneys want him moved to a juvenile facility, but prosecutors say he would pose a potential risk of harm to the safety of other juveniles.
An Oakland County Circuit Court judge said during a hearing for Ethan Crumbley on Tuesday that he expected to have a ruling by early next week on whether the teen will remain in the adult jail or be transferred to the county's Children's Village.
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Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.