OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:18 PM – Thursday, March 14, 2024
James Crumbley, the father of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, was found guilty on Thursday of involuntary manslaughter.
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After concluding the testimony and final arguments on Wednesday afternoon, the jury pondered for around 12 hours until announcing the judgment on Thursday at around 7:20 p.m. local time.
Both Crumbley parents will face criminal charges for their teen son’s school shooting, which occurred at Oxford High School on November 30th, 2021. On that day, Ethan Crumbley killed four students and injured seven others.
Four days prior to going on his rampage, Ethan had received a gun from his father as an “early Christmas gift.” However, the legal defense insisted that the firearm was not actually a gift and was only intended to be used at the shooting range with his father.
The victims’ families let out sighs of relief as the jury foreman read the verdicts. As each guilty verdict was read, James Crumbley shook his head angrily and began to tear up. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald also gave each victim’s parent a hug as they left the courthouse.
Ethan’s father, James, was accused of being egregiously negligent in a number of ways, including ignoring his son’s mental health issues, purchasing a gun for him rather than sending him to counseling, failing to secure the weapon safely, and neglecting to notify school officials about the gun when he and his wife were called by the school in relation to a disturbing drawing that their son had illustrated the morning before the shooting. The words “The thoughts won’t stop, help me” were written next a firearm.
The defense asserted that the father never observed any indications that his son was mentally ill or would ever harm anyone, nor was he aware of the teen’s plans to shoot up the school.
Additionally, the relatives of the victims have long maintained that school administrators should also be held responsible for the tragic deaths of their children and that the Crumbleys are not the only ones to blame
“While we are grateful that James and Jennifer Crumbley were found guilty, we want to be very clear that this is just the beginning of our quest for justice and true accountability,” said the families of the four slain students in a joint statement after the verdict was read. “There is so much more that needs to be done to ensure other families in Michigan and across the country don’t experience the pain that we feel and we will not stop until real change is made.”
Jennifer Crumbley, Ethan’s mother, was found guilty on four charges of involuntary manslaughter last month. She will be sentenced on April 9th and could spend up to 15 years behind bars. Meanwhile, Ethan has entered a plea of guilty to all charges and is currently incarcerated for life without the chance of release.
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