Jury weighs fate of James Crumbley, mass shooter's dad, in case with national implications

DETROIT — A verdict could arrive as early as Thursday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of James Crumbley, the Michigan mass shooter's father whose trial outcome could establish a national precedent for holding parents accountable for the actions of their children.

James Crumbley and his wife are the first parents in America charged in a mass school shooting as prosecutors seek to hold them both criminally liable for buying their son, Ethan, the gun that he used in the massacre, and, for never telling the school about the weapon when they were summoned over his troubling behavior. Jennifer Crumbley was convicted of involuntary manslaughter last month.

James Crumbley is accused of causing the deaths of four students murdered by his son in the 2021 Oxford High School mass shooting.

The jury resumed deliberations Thursday after closing arguments Wednesday in which the prosecution and defense hammered away at the same themes they did in the wife's case: One side maintained Crumbley was a careless, negligent father who bought a troubled son a gun and failed to secure it. Defense lawyers said the dad never saw any signs that his son was mentally ill or would ever harm someone, that the gun wasn't a gift his son could use freely and that it was hidden.

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald implored the jury in an impassioned speech to hold Crumbley accountable for failing to take "tragically small measures" that could have saved the lives of four children.

Crumbley, she stressed, could have put a cable lock on the gun his son sneaked out of the home and used in the shooting or taken his son home from school when the boy showed signs of desperation in a drawing he made.

But James Crumbley did nothing, she said.

'I say their names because they matter,' prosecutor says

Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison without parole. In his rampage on Nov. 30, 2021, he killed Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17, and wounded six other students and a teacher.

"Remember that he didn't just fail in his duty to his son," McDonald said of the father. "He failed in his duty to protect Hana, and Justin and Madisyn and Tate. I don't say their names to evoke sympathy. I say their names because they matter. They matter."

"And that is why we are here . . . Because if James Crumbley had done even the smallest of things, like the 10-second cable lock or gone home or took responsibility for his kid who was in trouble, those kids wouldn't have been shot and killed in that school on that day."

McDonald urged the jury to focus on what James Crumbley did not do in the days, weeks and months before his son shot up his school.

McDonald argued that Crumbley ignored a son who was mentally struggling and asking for help and bought him a gun instead.

"James Crumbley is not on trial for what his son did. He's on trial for what he did and didn't do," said McDonald, who later would stress: "We are absolutely here about what happened in that school that day."

Defense: The charges are about hindsight

The defense disagreed.

Defense attorney Mariell Lehman began her closing argument by acknowledging the horrors that occurred on Nov. 30, 2021, in which lives were tragically ended and ruined.

"We can agree that you heard a lot about what happened inside Oxford High School. This case is not about what happened inside Oxford High School. This case is about what happened outside Oxford High School … about what James Crumbley knew on or before Nov. 30, 2021," Lehman said.

She stressed, repeatedly, that this case is about hindsight.

"The prosecution is asking you to second guess the decisions" of James Crumbley, she said, maintaining that no one who met with the shooter in the hours before the massacre could have predicted what was going to happen.

"As (school counselor) Shawn Hopkins told you, 'It's easy to look at things in hindsight,' " she said, referring to the counselor who concluded shortly before the massacre that the shooter posed no threat to anyone, despite Hopkins getting five alerts from teachers within 24 hours of the shooting about the teen showing troubling behavior.

The school officials didn't think he was a danger, she stressed, and neither did the boy's father.

'It says, 'Help me.' How many times does this kid have to say it?'

McDonald became visibly incensed as she focused the jury's attention on perhaps the most damning piece of evidence in the case: a troubling drawing the shooter made on the morning before the shooting on his math worksheet. It features a gun, a human body bleeding and the words: "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."

The boy's parents were summoned to the school over the drawing, though the Crumbleys returned to their jobs after they met with the counselor and dean of students, vowing to get their son help within 48 hours. The school officials concluded the student was no threat to himself or others, and let him return to class.

Two hours later, the boy fired his first shot.

Had James Crumbley taken his son's drawing more seriously and taken the boy home, McDonald argued, the tragedy could have been avoided.

"It says, 'Help me,' How many times does this kid have to say it?" McDonald argued, alleging the shooter had asked for help repeatedly in the past year, but no one did anything.

After meeting with school officials, James and Jennifer Crumbley went back to their jobs.

"Use common sense," McDonald said. "It doesn't make any sense to stand here and say someone had no idea that he needed help when he saw on a page, 'Help me.' "

Lehman addressed why James Crumbley didn't bring his son home that day, saying the professionals at school wanted the boy to see someone so that his sadness wouldn't get worse, "not that 'he had to see someone right now. It's an emergency. He has to see someone right now.' That's not what was said."

A focus on the shooter's journal

McDonald urged jurors to remember the shooter's journal, noting the teen wrote he was "begging" his dad for a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun, and eventually got it. She cited this excerpt:

"First off, I got my gun. It's a Sig Sauer … The shooting is tomorrow. I have access to the gun and ammo."

McDonald also cited several of the shooter's journal entries:

• "I have zero help for my mental problems, and it's causing me to shoot up the f----- school."
• "I want help, but my parents won't listen to me, so I can't get any help."
• "My parents won't listen to me about help or a therapist."
• She also repeated a text the shooter sent to his friend in which he wrote: "I actually asked my dad to take me to the doctor the other day, and he just gave me some pills and said to 'suck it up.' "

Lehman, however, urged the jury to remember another excerpt in the journal, which reads: "I will have to find where my dad hid my 9 mm before I can shoot (up) the school."

This, Lehman argued, showed that the boy did not have access to the gun.

McDonald installs cable lock — 'That takes less than 10 seconds'

McDonald concluded by focusing on "tragically small things" that she believes could have saved four lives.

She conducted a demonstration, showing jurors how easy it is to put a cable lock on a gun. "This is the murder weapon," she said, pointing at the 9mm in the courtroom. "This is a cable lock … we know a cable lock was in the home. We know it was provided."

McDonald then installed the lock. "This is me inserting a cable lock. That takes less than 10 seconds, 10 seconds. … It was right there. Ten seconds of the easiest simplest thing."

Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected]

Contact Gina Kaufman: [email protected]. Follow her on X: @ReporterGina.