The mother and father of the then-15-year-old student who shot and killed four classmates at Oxford Michigan High School in 2021 have been sentenced to 15 years in prison following a jury found them guilty of negligent homicide.
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, heard the court’s verdict following several of the victims’ parents made emotional final statements inside the courtroom in Pontiac, in Oakland County, Michigan, where the high school is located. .
“Not only did your son kill my daughter, but you did too,” sobbed Nicole Beausoleil, the mother of 17-year-old Madison Baldwin. James Crumbley listened impassively while his wife bowed her head.
Ethan Crumbley was 15 when he went on a rampage at Oxford High School in 2021. The following year he pleaded guilty to four murders and other offenses and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December.
Speaking in court before her sentence was handed down, 46-year-old Jennifer Crumbley expressed her “deepest sadness” and said she had not even the faintest idea her son was capable of killing a human being. “My husband and I used to say we have the perfect child. I really thought so. I had no reason to do anything different. It wasn’t something I might have predicted. If there’s anything the world can learn from this, it’s that it can happen to any of you. I will be in my own internal prison for the rest of my life,” she added, naming her son’s victims several times.
“I’m sorry for what my son did”
Addressing the court, her 47-year-old husband apologized for what his son had done.
The sentences handed down to the pair “reflect repeated actions or omissions which might have stopped an imminent disaster”, said Judge Cheryl Matthews.
Prosecutors said at the trials of both his parents that they were guilty of criminal negligence for giving their son a gun as a Christmas present and ignoring signs that his mental health had deteriorated and that he was potentially violent.
The parents’ defense lawyers argued, among other things, that it was impossible for his mother and father to imagine that their son would commit a massacre.
The US, a country facing increased gun violence, has experienced a number of school gun attacks over the years, mostly by former or current students. The Crumbleys are the first parents to be charged with manslaughter in the case of a juvenile school shooter.
Gun safety experts and advocates said the trials were an important step toward holding gun-owning parents accountable for their children’s school violence. Research by the US Department of Homeland Security has shown that approximately 75% of all perpetrators of school attacks found the crime weapon at home.
Accusations of ignoring warnings
James Crumbley bought the 9mm semi-automatic handgun as a Christmas present for Ethan just four days before the massacre on November 30, 2021.
The morning before the tragedy, both of Ethan’s parents were called to his school because teachers had discovered threatening messages and drawings in his schoolwork, prosecutors said during the trial.
There they were told that Ethan needed immediate psychological support. But, according to prosecutors, the Crumbleys refused. They took their child home that day, but did not search his bag or question him regarding the gun they knew he had access to.
Eventually Ethan returned to school. And then he came out of the bathroom holding the gun and started shooting, according to prosecutors.
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