James Crumbley, father of Ethan Crumbley, found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in son's school shooting
Jurors weighing the fate of James Crumbley, the father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, have reached a verdict in his involuntary manslaughter trial.
PONTIAC, Mich. — A jury on Thursday convicted James Crumbley of involuntary manslaughter in connection with his teenage son’s deadly school shooting in 2021, in step with his wife, who was found guilty last month on the same charge.
The jury's decision after about 10 hours of deliberations caps a landmark case that for the first time in the U.S. held the parents of a mass school shooter criminally responsible. James and Jennifer Crumbley’s son, Ethan, who was 15 when he opened fire at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit, pleaded guilty as an adult and was sentenced in December to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"These were egregious facts in this case. These parents could have prevented this tragedy. It was foreseeable," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said after the verdict.
"With just the smallest of efforts, they could have prevented this shooting and saved these kids’ lives," she said.
James Crumbley, 47, faces up to 15 years in prison per the four counts of involuntary manslaughter, each one representing a murdered student. Jennifer Crumbley, 45, will be sentenced in April.
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