Jury deliberating James Crumbley's fate asks question, but it's kept secret

After seven hours in the deliberation room, the jury deciding James Crumbley's fate had a question Thursday afternoon — though it was answered in private.

Then the jury went back to work.

Jurors have been going at it for about nine hours now, starting at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, when both sides finished their impassioned closing arguments involving the embattled father of the Oxford school shooter.

Typically, jurors stop for the day at 4:30 p.m., but court officials said the jury asked to stay later Thursday. How late remains to be seen.

According to legal experts, the rule of thumb with how long jury deliberations typically go is this: For each week of testimony, a jury deliberates one day. That means in this case, which had five days of testimony — one work week — which would mean one full day of deliberations before a verdict is reached.

Experts note that's not a hard and fast rule, but one they follow in trying to figure out when to expect a verdict announcement.

In Jennifer Crumbley's case, the jury deliberated for 11 hours, a day and a half, before announcing its guilty verdict against the shooter's mother. Her trial had seven days of testimony, almost a week and a half, so the deliberation time fell in line with the rule of thumb.

James Crumbley is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for, among other things, buying the gun that his son used to murder four students in the 2021 mass shooting at Oxford High School. Seven others were injured, including a teacher who testified at both parents' trials. Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to his crimes and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

During his father's trial, the prosecution and defense hammered away at the same themes they did in the wife's case, with one side maintaining Crumbley was a careless, negligent father who bought a troubled son a gun and failed to secure it, while the other side maintained the dad never saw any signs that his son was mentally ill or would ever harm someone, that the gun was secured, and that he never knew of his son's plan to shoot up his school.

Prosecutors say Crumbley ignored a mentally ill son who needed help, but instead of getting him therapy, he bought him a gun — the same one the teenager used in the rampage on Nov. 30, 2021. Prosecutors say James Crumbley also failed to properly secure the gun and didn't tell school officials about it when given the opportunity during a pivotal meeting in a counselor's office, where he was summoned on the morning of the shooting over a drawing his son had made. It featured a gun, a human being bleeding, and the words, "The thoughts wont stop, help me."

Crumbley and his wife went back to their jobs after that meeting and vowed to get their son help within 48 hours. The teenager went back to class. Two hours later, he fired his first shot.

Prosecutors are seeking to hold James Crumbley responsible for the deaths of four students murdered by his son. His wife, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted on Feb. 6 of the same crimes, and became the first parent in America to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child. She faces up to 15 years in prison when she is sentenced April 9.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com