Foreman of James Crumbley jury says gun storage was key issue for him, but not all jurors

In the end, it was about how the gun was stored — at least for the jury foreman.

Two days after announcing the historic guilty verdict, the jury foreman in the James Crumbley involuntary manslaughter trial spoke to the Free Press about the painstaking work in deciding the fate of the Oxford school shooter's father, saying what drove him to convict more than anything else was how the gun was secured.

According to trial testimony, James Crumbley told police that he had hidden the gun — which his son would use to commit the 2021 massacre — in his bedroom armoire, unloaded in a case; and that the bullets were stored in a separate drawer under some jeans.

That wasn't good enough for the 65-year-old jury foreman, a grandfather of three who grew up with guns in the Upper Peninsula, and works for a residential trash company. The jurors have not been named publicly, and the foreman spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his privacy.

Foreman: Jury had 'no rah-rah-rah moments'

"Securing the gun is the whole thing," the foreman told the Free Press in an interview Saturday, stressing that James Crumbley could have used any one of the following methods to secure the gun, which the 15-year-old sneaked into his backpack and out of his house before his rampage on Nov. 30, 2021.

"It could have been a safe, a cable lock, a trigger lock," the man said. "It all could have been used at some point."

But it wasn't, he said.

And somehow, though never explained at trial, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley managed to get a hold of the 9mm semiautomatic handgun. He murdered four of his classmates with it, and wounded seven others, including a teacher. The teen is serving life without parole, and both of his parents have now been convicted of involuntary manslaughter for failing to take steps to prevent the violence.

"The lack of securing the gun ... I mean, that's what caused all this," said the foreman, who led deliberations for 10 hours over two days before a unanimous decision was reached.

"It wasn't easy for anybody," the foreman said of the deliberation process. "There were no rah-rah-rah moments. We just had to work through it."

Prosecutors connected the dots to convict James Crumbley

The grandfather was among six men and six women who convicted James Crumbley one month after his wife, Jennifer, was convicted of the same crimes. Prosecutors say James Crumbley ignored a troubled son, bought him a gun instead of getting him help, failed to properly secure the weapon, and never informed the school about it when he had the chance.

The foreman noted that not all jurors had the same views about how the gun should have been stored, and that the reason for convicting was different from juror to juror. He said the group was divided during most of the deliberations, but had no spats.

In the end, he said, it wasn't one particular piece of evidence that did it for the whole group, but that the prosecution managed to connect all the dots.

"It all kind of pieced together," he said of the evidence.

After the issue of gun storage, second highest in the foreman's mind was the father's reluctance to get his son help for his mental health struggles, he said, noting that the shooter's journal, in which the teen claimed his parents ignored his pleas for help, had an impact on him and other jurors.

The parents leaving their son at school on the morning of the shooting after seeing a disturbing drawing he had made of a gun and the words, "The thoughts won't stop, help me," also came up during deliberations.

"That weighed on some people, too," he said of the parents leaving their son at school.

As for the school shooting video, which brought multiple jurors to tears, he said: "It was gruesome."

And though it was silent, with most of the graphic scenes not easily seen, "you knew what was happening," he said.

Multiple jurors wiped their eyes while some held their hands over their mouths as they watched the school shooting video, which showed the teenage gunman emerge from a bathroom and blast gunshots down the hallway as students ran for cover.

'Let's just get this stuff rolling'

The defense argued that James Crumbley never saw any signs that his son was mentally ill or would ever hurt anyone, and had no idea he was planning to shoot up his school.

The jury foreman said Crumbley's lawyer, Mariell Lehman, had her hands full, but did a good job.

"Her job sucks," he said. "There must be firms all over the country knocking on her door. That wasn't easy for her."

The foreman, who during jury selection told the court he hunted as a kid — he didn’t want to be a "buck-less Yooper," he said — explained how he became the foreman. He said when jurors started deliberations, nobody wanted the job. So he volunteered.

"I said, 'Let's just get this stuff rolling.' We had to get to work," he recalled.

Sighing on his front porch during the interview Saturday, the no-nonsense juror reflected on the verdict.

"It's not gonna fix nothing … it's not gonna bring back their kids," he said.

But, he added, "It's just a start … it's a start of things."

He was referring to the verdict sending a message about parental responsibility, and how parents will hopefully be more careful in how they store their weapons.

"I just hope there was justice for the families," he said. "It was hard on everybody."

James Crumbley faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced on April 9. His wife, Jennifer Crumbley, will be sentenced on the same day and also faces 15 years maximum. The Crumbleys are the first parents in America to be held criminally responsible in a mass school shooting committed by their child.

Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com