PONTIAC, Mich. — Prosecutors balked at a request from James and Jennifer Crumbley to attend the hearing that will determine if their son will have the chance to be released on parole after killing four people in a shooting at Oxford High School in November 2021.
The Crumbleys' attorneys filed a motion March 27 asking that their clients be allowed to attend their son's May 1 Miller hearing, where Judge Kwamé Rowe will hear testimony to indicate if there are mitigating factors that would make it unconstitutional to sentence their son to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This hearing is "of paramount importance" to the Crumbleys, their attorneys, Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, wrote. They have not been allowed to have contact with their son, though they have received "sufficient" updates from family members and from their attorneys on how he is doing, according to the request.
But the Crumbleys' statement that they are concerned about their son "is a stark contrast to their actions and inactions immediately after the shooting," Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast wrote.
"These defendants abandoned their son the moment they thought charges against them were possible," Keast wrote. "They left it to the court to find him an attorney, they emptied his bank account and they used that money to find themselves an attorney and flee from apprehension."
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews will decide if the Crumbleys can attend the hearing. A motion hearing will be held April 12.
Abandoning their son in favor of their own interests is a consistent theme for these defendants, Keast wrote. As Jennifer Crumbley said the day of the shooting, their son ruined his own life and "now we have to take care of ourselves."
Keast wrote that Smith and Lehman failed to mention the factual basis the shooter gave when he pleaded guilty to 24 felonies contradicts their own claims about his access to the 9 mm handgun they bought him before the shooting. They also "recently became aware" that testimony at the Miller hearing will be unfavorable to them, Keast wrote.
"The People believe this is defendants' attempt to confront and/or implore their son not to disclose the full circumstances of his upbringing," Keast wrote. "The idea that they are focused on reducing their own sentence at the expense of their son is shameful and offensive."
Keast said the Crumbleys' in-person attendance at the shooter's Miller hearing would only be a distraction and interference with the proceedings that day. The Crumbleys have not been subpoenaed, Keast wrote, and neither their son nor his attorneys have not requested they attend the hearing.
The Crumbleys are charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the deaths of Justin Shilling, 17, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Tate Myre, 16, and Madisyn Baldwin, 17.
