Jennifer Crumbley expresses remorse, says she hated prosecutors
Tresa Baldas, Adrienne Roberts and Lily Altavena
Jennifer Crumbley addressed the court and the victims’ families before her sentencing Tuesday.
“I sit here today to express my deepest sorrows to the victims’ families,” Crumbley said, adding that the “gravity and weight that this has taken on my heart and soul” can never be measured and “nothing I can say will ease” the pain and heartache suffered by the victims’ families.
“I have taken countless nights to lament,” she said, adding: “I pray all the victims are in God’s mercy and peace.”
She also addressed her controversial testimony, during which she said, “I wouldn’t have done anything differently.” The comment was cited by the jury foreperson in her case and by Oxford High families as callous and showing her lack of remorse.
“I was horrified to learn that my answer had the effect” that it did, she said, explaining that her answer reflected what she knew at the time.
“This was not something I foresaw,” Jennifer Crumbley said of the shooting. “With the benefit of hindsight, my answer would be drastically different.”
Especially, she added, “if I thought my son was capable of crimes like these.”
“The Ethan I knew was a good kid. My husband and I used to say we had a perfect kid ... that’s who I saw and thought I knew,” she said.
Their son, who was 15 when he murdered four students and wounded six others and a teacher on Nov. 30, 2021, during a rampage at Oxford High School.
Jennifer Crumbley then laid blame on the school, saying it failed to alert her about troubling behavior her son had at school on several occasions, and when it did summon her over a troubling drawing, “We were led to believe from school officials and Ethan as well that this was an isolated event,” she said. “We were never asked to take him home that day.”
She added, “The prosecution keeps saying is that we did not give the big picture.” But, she said, the school “did not give us the full picture.”
Jennifer Crumbley suggested that what her son did could happen to anyone, attempting to refute the idea that she and James Crumbley were bad parents or missed warning signs.
“We were good parents,” she said. “We were the average family. Everything we strived for was to make sure our son had the best life we could give him. I know we did our best.”
She also urged the public to take away this message: “This could be any parent ... your child can make any decision.”
Not just with a gun, she said, but with a knife, a vehicle — and the parents could be held responsible.
She also told the prosecution: “I have hated you.”
But she has come to forgive the prosecution over time, she said, and continues to try to forgive herself for decisions she cannot change.
“To the victims and the families, I stand today not to ask for your forgiveness, but to express my sincere apologies for the pain that has been caused.”
She added:
“Alone, I grieve ... I will be in my own internal prison for the rest of my life.”
Judge Matthews sentenced James and Jennifer Crumbley both to 10-15 years in prison for their roles in the shooting.
Contact
Tresa
Baldas:
tbaldas@freepress.com