DETROIT — Oakland County prosecutors have brought new evidence to the Michigan Supreme Court of the "consciousness of guilt" by the parents of the Oxford High School shooter as they appeal their involuntary manslaughter charges to the state's highest court.
Among the revelations, County Prosecutor Karen McDonald's office noted that James Crumbley took the receipt for the gun he had bought his son with him when he and his wife Jennifer fled Oakland County after the November 2021 shooting. James Crumbley had the receipt on him when he was arrested.
"Defendants' flight and the taking of the receipt for the murder weapon during such flight provide an inference of their consciousness of guilt," prosecutors wrote.
"While the People are prepared to present additional evidence of causation, this Court need not reach that issue because the evidence presented at the preliminary examination exceeded the low bar that is the probable cause standard," prosecutors wrote.
The prosecutor's office added that the "Court of Appeals opinion is a narrow one that is consistent with this Court's precedent."
The Crumbleys are charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the mass shooting their son committed at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021, which left four students dead and six students and a teacher injured. Prosecutors said the Crumbleys were criminally negligent and could or should have foreseen the shooting.
The Crumbleys' attorneys, Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, have said prosecutors cannot demonstrate that a juror could decide that a reasonably foreseeable outcome of the Crumbleys' alleged gross negligence was their son committing a shooting that day. They said their son's criminal conduct was the sole cause of harm to the victims and the shooting was not reasonably foreseeable.
Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, a teenager accused of killing four students in a shooting at Oxford High School, appear in court for a preliminary examination on involuntary manslaughter charges in Rochester Hills, Mich., Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022.
Smith and Lehman argue that Oakland County District Court Judge Julie Nicholson abused her discretion when she sent the cases to circuit court to stand trial. Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews and a panel of three Michigan Court of Appeals judges have already ruled against the Crumbleys.
In arguments and filings in district court, Oakland County Circuit Court and the Court of Appeals, prosecutors have laid out evidence that they say shows the Crumbleys were criminally negligent when they bought their son a gun for Christmas; did not listen to his concerns about his declining mental health; and when they did not take him home the day of the shooting after they were called to the school for a meeting about concerning drawings and phrases on their son's math worksheet.
Their son had written "the thoughts won't stop," "blood everywhere" and "the world is dead" on the worksheet, along with drawings of a gun and a bleeding person who'd been shot multiple times.
Though Jennifer Crumbley texted her husband that she was "very concerned" about the drawings and that they constituted an emergency, she told an interviewer after the shooting that she "didn't even look at them closely," according to the latest filing by prosecutors.
Jennifer Crumbley also showed a photo of the worksheet to her supervisor at the time, a coworker and the owner of the horse farm where they boarded their horses, according to prosecutors.
Jennifer Crumbley's comments to investigators were an attempt to deflect responsibility for the shooting, prosecutors said in the filing to the Supreme Court. She also tried to absolve herself in the deaths of the other students, saying her biggest fear was that Ethan was going to kill himself.
"Such fear only highlights the foreseeability of their son using the murder weapon — whether it be on himself or others," prosecutors wrote.
She also texted her supervisor at 1:23 p.m., just after she found out about the shooting and one minute after she texted her son to say "don't do it." She told her supervisor her son must be the shooter and said "I need my job. Please don't judge me for what my son did."
Eight months prior to the shooting, on March 8, 2021, Jennifer Crumbley texted her husband, saying she was "freaking out" when she couldn't reach her son after school. She expressed frustration with James Crumbley, saying "I told you to pick him up because he's upset and I don't want him to do anything stupid godamnit." These messages, along with other evidence, further show the Crumbleys were aware of their son's mental distress, according to prosecutors.
The Crumbleys' son has pleaded guilty to one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and 12 counts of using a gun during a felony. He is awaiting sentencing. His Miller hearing, where a judge will determine if it is constitutional to sentence him to life in prison without parole, is set for July 27.
The Crumbleys each face four involuntary manslaughter charges connected to the deaths of Oxford High students Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.
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