Prosecutor: Mich. shooting ‘preventable’
Trial begins for father of high school shooter
The involuntary manslaughter trial of James Crumbley, the father of the Michigan student who killed four Oxford High classmates in 2021, started Thursday with opening arguments and initial witnesses.
Crumbley faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter – the same charges on which his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted a month ago. She was the first parent in America to be held criminally accountable for a school shooting. Their son Ethan Crumbley is serving a life sentence.
A jury of nine women and six men – three of whom will be designated as alternates before deliberations begin – was seated Wednesday.
‘Nightmare was preventable’
Assistant prosecutor Marc Keast began by talking about the massacre.
“On November the 30th, 2021, James Crumbley’s 15-year-old son walked out of a boys’ bathroom holding a 9mm handgun ... he pointed. He aimed ... and fired,” Keast said. “That nightmare was preventable.”
Crumbley bought that gun, Keast said, and failed to secure it, “even though he knew” his son was in distress “and had been in a downward spiral.”
The students would be alive if Crumbley had “seized on any small opportunities” to prevent the shooting, Keast argued: “The shooting was foreseeable, especially to his father.”
Keast then introduced perhaps the most damning evidence: a drawing by Ethan Crumbley on a math worksheet the morning of the shooting. It depicted a gun, a bloody human body and the words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
“It took that counselor all but 20 minutes that parental involvement was required,” Keast said. But when the parents arrived, James Crumbley never mentioned the gun they had purchased four days earlier, or that their son’s best friend had just moved away. Rather, the parents left their son at school and went back to their jobs.
Two hours later, after an active shooter alert went out, Crumbley went home to check for the gun. Keast asked the jury to consider that no other school parent that day is known to have gone home to check for a gun.
Keast stressed that Crumbley is not accused of knowing what his son would do that day: “There is no claim that James Crumbley gave him that gun hoping he would kill four students.”
Rather, Keast said, Crumbley is accused of engaging in gross negligence, for a “willful disgregard of danger” and a failure to use “ordinary care.”
Defense: Crumbley didn’t know
Defense attorney Mariell Lehman acknowledged to jurors that the shooting undeniably wrecked families.
“But this case is not about what happened inside of Oxford High School,” she said in her opening statement. “This case is about what happened outside of Oxford High School.”
The prosecution, she said, alleged that Crumbley knew that his son was dangerous; that he knew his son could and would hurt other people; and that he failed to take steps to protect others. “That simply is not true,” she said. Crumbley did not purchase the gun knowing his son might use it against other people, Lehman said. He “did not know that his son could potentially harm other people, he did not know what his son was planning.” He did not even suspect his son was a danger.
Access to the firearm was not allowed, she said, and Crumbley was not aware that his son had access to it.
‘He was aiming to kill me’
The most dramatic moment of the morning unquestionably was the first witness, a teacher who was shot in the arm and came eye-to-eye with the gunman during his rampage.
Through tears, her voice shaking, Molly Darnell detailed the horror as it started to unfold. According to her testimony:
Confused, Darnell saw a rush of students go past her door. The principal announced over the PA, “We’re headed into lockdown. This is not a drill.” Then a “pop pop pop.”
Then doors slamming – so she closed her door as well and grabbed a “night lock” to secure the door when through a window she saw someone in a hoodie, mask and skull cap. She saw his eyes.
“I realize that he’s raising a gun to me. I remember thinking in my head, ‘There’s no orange tip on that gun,’ ” she said, meaning it wasn’t a BB gun.
Darnell felt as if she had been stung by hot water – the bullet hitting her arm. She crawled to the door, put the night lock in place, then pushed a rolling cart in front of the door.
She felt blood going down her arm and used her cardigan as a tourniquet. She texted her husband to say “I love you,” and her daughter to say she was barricaded and safe.
When police arrived and took her to a hospital, she saw nurses and doctors lining the hallways.
“They were prepared for a disaster,” she said through tears, adding, “He was aiming to kill me.”