Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the teen gunman who carried out the 2021 Oxford mass school shooting, is seeking to throw out her first-in-the-nation manslaughter conviction for her parental tie to the attack.
She argues the prosecution failed to disclose agreements school officials made to provide evidence in the case against her in what amounts to a secret cooperation deal.
"Jennifer Crumbley’s convictions for involuntary manslaughter stem from a trial riddled with legal errors where key evidence was withheld, and cooperation agreements were peddled and suppressed to secure testimony for the prosecution to convict an individual who committed no crime," appellate attorney Michael Dezsi toldThe Detroit Free Press, calling the case a “sham prosecution.”
At issue are confidential proffer agreements between the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and a former school counselor and dean. Dezsi claims neither Crumbley’s original defense nor the jury knew about the agreements with these two officials, which he argues encouraged the staffers to shift the blame onto Jennifer Crumbley.
Both officials were involved in discussions between the school and Ethan Crumbley’s parents on the day of the massacre, after the 15-year-old was seen making a violent drawing of a gun with the words “the thoughts won’t stop, help me.”
The officials allowed the teen to return to class without searching his backpack, and his parents did not bring him home. Later that day, he carried out the shooting, wounding seven and killing four people: Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17.
Local officials denied making any secret deal with the school administrators.
“No witnesses were given anything for their testimony, and there was no immunity – these witnesses testified without any promises or protection whatsoever," Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams told the Free Press.
The mother also argues state officials prosecuted her family with a double standard, investigating the shooter as an adult while prosecuting her on the basis that she failed in her parental duty to stop her child from carrying out violence, a duty Dezsi argues doesn’t have a basis in state law.
Jennifer Crumbley and her husband James were the first parents in America to be held criminally responsible for a mass shooting their child committed.
Prosecutors accused the parents of ignoring worrying signs about their son’s mental health, and failing to secure a gun. James Crumbley bought his son the weapon that was later used in the shooting.
When school officials previously alerted the Crumbleys that their son was searching online for information about ammunition, she allegedly texted him, “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
The shooter pleaded guilty to murder, and was later sentenced in December 2023 to life in prison. Both his parents were convicted of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year and given sentences of up to 15 years behind bars. All three are appealing their cases.
The shooter is attempting to take back his plea, with appellate lawyers arguing he was too young to understand the court case in front of him, and that his original defense team didn’t properly consider if he had suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome, which might’ve have impact his childhood development.
Last month, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office and the Michigan Attorney General’s Office announced they’d agreed to work together to investigate the shooting, following demands from parents of vicitms for further accountability, and an outside report that found leaders at all levels of Oxford Community Schools also “bear responsibility” for the shooting.
