Parents of Michigan school shooter sentenced

Attorneys for Jennifer and James Crumbley have asked for the parents to be sentenced to less than five years in prison each ahead of today sentencing in connection with their role in their son’s fatal mass shooting at a Michigan high school. 

In a pre-sentencing memo, James Crumbley’s defense attorney asked the judge to sentence him to 28 months in prison – with credit for the time he’s already served – and a maximum period of supervision. 

If the judge “is inclined to sentence Mr. Crumbley to further incarceration,” the memo reads, his attorney requested he be sentenced to 42 months with credit for time served. 

Jennifer Crumbley’s attorney argues in her pre-sentencing memo that a guideline of 29 to 57 months with credit for time already served is “certainly more proportional” than the 10 to 15 years prosecutors requested. 

Her memo also argues that the no-contact proposal with her, her son and her husband is “unconstitutional,” saying the provisions “violate Mrs. Crumbley’s state and federal constitutional rights in freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life.” 

James Crumbley’s memo also claims that he did not threaten physical harm to prosecuting attorney Karen McDonald. CNN previously reported he allegedly threatened McDonald in a jailhouse call with a family member. His attorneys argue in the memo that he only wanted to “ensure that she does not do to other people what she had done in this case” and “at worst engaged in frustrated name-calling.”

Both memos from the Crumbleys include letters of support from their family and friends.

In the sentencing memorandum for Jennifer Crumbley, prosecutors pointed to statements she made during her trial, where she testified, “I’ve asked myself if I would have done anything differently, and I wouldn’t have.”

In her pre-sentence report, she acknowledged she testified she wouldn’t have done anything different but said "That is true without the benefit of hindsight that I have now."

She has asked to serve her sentence under house arrest in her defense attorney’s home.

“I have been in jail for over 26 months and have been locked down 23 hours per day,” she added. “I am hopeful the Court will sentence me in a way that allows me to be released for the balance of my sentence. I do have an Oakland County address where I could live and be placed on a tether with house arrest.”

Both Jennifer and James Crumbley have been behind bars since they were arrested in December 2021 at a Detroit warehouse after leading authorities on a manhunt following the school shooting.

In recently filed court documents, Michigan prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence the parents of school shooter Ethan Crumbley to at least 10 years in prison, alleging they have both showed a “chilling lack of remorse” after they were convicted for involuntary manslaughter.

In two separate sentencing memorandums dated April 3, Oakland County prosecutors asked the judge to sentence each parent to 10 to 15 years in state prison.

In a rare move, prosecutors released excerpts of the pre-sentencing investigation reports and included statements from both defendants written after jurors found them guilty.

The prosecutors allege Crumbley’s father has repeatedly threatened the prosecuting attorney Karen McDonald and has said: “There will be retribution.”

In the prosecution’s sentencing memorandum for James Crumbley, prosecutors noted “his jail calls show a total lack of remorse, he blames everyone but himself, and he threatened the elected Prosecutor.” They also note the father has repeatedly said he is being persecuted and has referred to himself as a “martyr.”

In a pre-sentence investigation report, James Crumbley wrote he feels “absolutely horrible/am (devastated) for what happened,” and that he would “give anything to go back and do something different that would have changed what (happened).”

In that report, he argues he should be released from prison after the time he has already served.

James Crumbley, the father of the teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school in 2021, was found guilty last month of involuntary manslaughter in a trial that came weeks after the shooter’s mother was convicted of the same charges.

Crumbley was convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter, a charge that carries a maximum punishment of up to 15 years in prison, which would run concurrently.

Jury deliberations came more than two years after his son, Ethan Crumbley, then 15, used a SIG Sauer 9mm to kill four students and wound six students and a teacher at Oxford High School on November 30, 2021.

Prosecutors in closing arguments said James Crumbley was “grossly negligent” because he bought the gun for his son days before the attack, failed to properly secure it, ignored his son’s deteriorating mental health and did not take “reasonable care” to prevent foreseeable danger.

In response, defense attorney Mariell Lehman asserted the prosecution’s case lacked evidence and was based on “assumptions and hindsight.”

Keep reading about James Crumbley's trial.

Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the teenager who killed four students at an Oxford, Michigan, high school in 2021, was found guilty in February of all four counts of involuntary manslaughter in a novel legal case that stood as a test of the limits of who’s responsible for a school shooting.

Crumbley, 45, had pleaded not guilty to the charges in the November 30, 2021, mass shooting at Oxford High School, in which her son Ethan killed four students and wounded six students and a teacher. She faces up to 15 years in prison.

What the prosecution said: The prosecution’s case relied on an unusual and novel legal strategy and represented an attempt to expand the scope of blame in mass shootings. While parents have previously faced liability for their child’s actions – such as with neglect or firearms charges – this was the first time a parent of a school shooter was held directly responsible for the killings.

The prosecution argued Jennifer Crumbley was responsible for the deaths because she was “grossly negligent” in giving a gun to her son Ethan, who was 15 at the time, and failing to get him proper mental health treatment despite warning signs.

What the defense said: However, the defense argued the blame lay elsewhere: on her husband for improperly securing the firearm; on the school for failing to notify her about her son’s behavioral issues; and on Ethan himself, who planned and carried out the attack on his own. Defense attorney Shannon Smith said the case was “dangerous” for parents everywhere.

Jennifer Crumbley took the stand: In a remarkable moment, she expressed no regret for her actions. “I’ve asked myself if I would have done anything differently, and I wouldn’t have,” she testified.

Read more about Jennifer Crumbley's trial.

The verdicts in the Crumbley parents’ cases – based on allegations of negligence and foreseeability – likely will be used by prosecutors in other cases, according to CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson.

Still, the cases against the Crumbleys reflected parental negligence far outside the norm, prosecuting attorney Karen McDonald told jurors in the latter trial.

Indeed, the elder Crumbleys’ cases were so uncommon that their impact will likely be limited, Frank Vandervort, clinical professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, said before the trials in January.

Even so, James and Jennifer Crumbley’s guilty verdicts could set an important precedent for who besides the shooter can be held responsible for a mass shooting though such cases remain uncommon, experts said.

Read more about the possible impact for future cases.

Teenager Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December 2023 for gunning down four classmates and wounding six others and a teacher at Michigan’s Oxford High School in 2021.

Dismissing last-minute defense pleas that Crumbley’s life is salvageable, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Kwamé Rowe noted that the “defendant in his own words” told the court “this is nobody’s fault but his own.”

Rowe said victim Justin Shilling, 17, was shot at point-blank range after being told by Crumbley to get on his knees. Hana St. Juliana, 14, was shot a second time after she was down, he said, “to finish the job by shooting her again.”

Before sentencing, Crumbley told the judge: “I am a really bad person. I have done terrible things that no one should ever do.” Whatever the sentence handed down, he added, “I do plan to be better.”

Crumbley became the first minor to receive an original sentence of life without the possibility of parole following a 2012 US Supreme Court ruling that found sentencing a child to life without parole is excessive for all but the rare offender, according to court documents in the case. He was 15 when he committed the attack.

Keep reading about Ethan Crumbley's hearing.