PONTIAC, MICHIGAN – APRIL 9: Jennifer Crumbley looks at her husband James Crumbley during their sentencing on four counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of four Oxford High School students by their son, mass school shooter Ethan Crumbley, on April 9, 2024 at Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac, Michigan. Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents in U.S. history to be criminally tried and convicted for a mass school shooting that was committed by their child. ((Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
11:40 AM – Sunday, April 7, 2024
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, have been sentenced to 10 to 15 years after being found guilty of “four counts of involuntary manslaughter.”
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The parents of the Michigan school shooter were sentenced on Tuesday after having separate trials earlier this year.
Jennifer gave a statement during her sentencing where she sought to “walk back her testimony” during trial after claiming that she would not have done anything differently if she could go back in time.
As for James, he merely requested to be sentenced in a “fair and just way.”
“You know that what my son did, I was not aware of,” Ethan’s father reiterated.
According to the sentencing documents, prosecutors were seeking for 10 to 15 years total for each parent, even though they could have faced up to 15 years for each separate count.
“No sentence this Court can administer will fix the damage caused by the Oxford High School shooting on November 30, 2021,” prosecutors wrote in requesting the sentence for Jennifer Crumbley. “As the jury found, the defendant’s gross negligence was a cause of this damage; she knew of the danger to another, it was reasonably foreseeable her son would shoot someone, but she failed to exercise even the smallest measure of ordinary care.”
Michigan’s sentencing guidelines typically call for a maximum punishment of about seven years in jail in regards to negligent parents whose child commits such a crime. However, prosecutors say that seven years is “not enough.”
“Considering the guidelines, what those guidelines do and do not account for, and the objectives of sentencing, the severity of the circumstances in this case and defendant’s total lack of remorse warrant a sentence that exceeds the applicable guidelines range,” prosecutors continued. “A sentence of 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment is proportionate to these offenses and this offender.”
In addition, James apologized to the victims during his statement in court on Tuesday.
“I really want the families of Madisyn Baldwin, Hana St. Juliana, Tate Myre and Justin Shilling to know how truly sorry I am and how devastated I was when I heard what happened to them. I have cried for you and the loss of your children more times than I can count,” he said.
According to Judge Cheryl Matthews, she will make a decision in the next coming weeks about whether to impose a “no contact” order between the parents and the shooter. James and Ethan will not be housed in the same facility.
James stated that he has not spoken to his son since the day of the shooting.
Ethan pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death in 2021. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The case has revolved around a meeting that took place a few hours prior to the shooting between school administrators and the Crumbley family. Ethan’s school advised that he seek assistance as soon as possible, but the Crumbleys refused to take him home since they “had to go back to their jobs.”
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