Ethan Crumbley: Jury told Michigan school shooter's parents could have 'prevented' killings

Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.

OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN: A jury has been selected to hear the case against a mother whose son killed four teenagers in a horrifying school shooting.

In connection with the deaths of Tate Myre, 16, Hana St Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17, on November 30, 2021, Jennifer Crumbley has been charged with manslaughter.

Prosecutors claim Jennifer Crumbley was last person to possess handgun

Crumbley's son, Ethan Crumbley, then 15-year-old, opened fire on his classmates. Prosecutors claim that Jennifer Crumbley was the last person to possess the handgun her son used in the attack.

She had posted on social media a few days earlier, describing it as her son's Christmas present. They further claimed that she failed to take appropriate action to find care for her son, as per Law&Crime's report.

Prosecutors claim that the Crumbleys were aware of their son's problems, though, and that on the day of the shooting, they had been called to the school by teachers who had found violent and unsettling drawings the boy had made in a math workbook.

After meeting with school officials and their son, the parents eventually left the school, leaving Ethan behind.

Following the shooting, arrest warrants were obtained for Jennifer Crumbley, her husband James Crumbley, who is also accused of manslaughter.

They seemed to have made an effort to avoid being apprehended by the authorities, but in the end, they were discovered hiding in a building close to downtown Detroit, about thirty minutes from Oakland.

Prosecutors told jurors during Friday's closing arguments that Jennifer Crumbley could have easily prevented her son from carrying out the shooting.

"Ordinary care [means] what [is] the tragically smallest thing she could have done to prevent this?" Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor, questioned the jury before citing multiple instances.

"Stopped at home on the way back from the meeting [at her son’s school] to see where the gone was. [But she] drove right by her house. She could have stopped by after her meeting."

"She could have locked the gun. She could have taken him home. She could have taken him to work. He could have gone with his dad — he was DoorDashing."

'Smallest thing could have saved' victims: Prosecutors

McDonald also revealed to the jurors that Jennifer Crumbley had concealed important details from administrators who had summoned her to a meeting that fateful day after she had found ominous drawings on Ethan Crumbley's homework.

“She could have told the school that they just gifted him a gun,” McDonald said.

He added, “She could have embraced her son. She could have said can we talk to him for a minute alone. She could have looked at him, said ‘I care about you, I love you.’ She could have at least acknowledged him in the room.”

“Ordinary care would have included all of those things,” the prosecutor also said. “And the tragic part about it is none of it was hard. None of it. The smallest thing, just the smallest thing could have saved Hana, Tate, Justin, and Madisyn. The smallest of things.”

She also advised jurors to take into account Jennifer Crumbley's actions in the days that followed the shooting, in which she and her husband tried to "avoid detection" by taking money out of their bank accounts and their son's, turning off their phones, and eventually seeking sanctuary in an art studio before being caught. These actions can be seen as evidence of "consciousness of guilt."

"Where is their son during this time?" prior to providing her own response, McDonald questioned the jurors.

"He’s at Children’s Village, being arraigned, with his court-appointed lawyer, where they had opportunity to go see him. They had opportunity to go to that arraignment, and they did not." McDonald said that the Crumbleys took off running.

Prosecutor highlighted Jennifer Crumbley's post-shooting communications

McDonald highlighted Jennifer Crumbley's communications in the hours and days following the shooting, which included texting her boss to beg him not to criticize her for her son's actions and to keep her job, as well as clearing messages from her phone and making plans for the care of her horses.

"Why is a mother whose son just killed four people thinking about deleting her text messages?" stated McDonald.

"Why is she saying things that are not true about her son? Why does she care about her job? Why does she care about her horse medicine? Why does she care about any of those things?" 

“She wants you to believe she is somebody she’s not,” McDonald continued.

“You know what she’s not? She is not somebody who used ordinary care to prevent something that was reasonably foreseeable that could result in injury or death. And it did.” 

McDonald also brought up the fact that, contrary to Jennifer Crumbley's testimony, the gun used in the attack was locked with a cable that was included with the gun case, but that the lock had never been opened or used.

The defendant, according to her, was the last person known to have the handgun.

McDonald displayed security footage of Jennifer Crumbley carrying the gun case and said, "This is the last picture we have of the gun before it is used as a murder weapon."

The prosecutor informed the jury that the video disproves Jennifer Crumbley's testimony, which stated that her husband should be responsible for keeping the gun secure.