The mother of the Michigan school shooter blames her husband for their son’s massacre after he allegedly helped the mentally challenged student buy a gun, prosecutors said.
Jennifer Crumbley has been telling other inmates that she blames her husband James for their son Ethan killing four students at Oxford High School in 2021, prosecutors alleged in a new filing Friday.
“James Crumbley should be aware of the fact that (his wife) Jennifer Crumbley has placed blame on him in jail communications,” Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Marc Keast wrote, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The mother and father have been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for the four students who died in the shooting. They have pleaded not guilty.
Jennifer allegedly has told other inmates that she blames James for purchasing the gun for their underage son just days before he would open fire in the school, and claimed he ignored Ethan’s mental health issues, according to WWMT.
Prosecutors also said that Ethan had told James he needed a doctor for his mental health and the father allegedly ignored his requests.
However, the defense has accused prosecutors of trying to drive a wedge between the parents and make it appear that they are “not united.”
“This could not be more untrue,” Jennifer’s lawyer Shannon Smith wrote in the filing Friday.
The emergency filing was prompted by Jennifer’s lawyer, who asked the prosecution to privately disclose any concerning issues they believed could cause a mistrial, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Prosecutors have made concerns known about the parents having separate lawyers, but Smith argued neither has filed a motion the “other party did not join.”
Jennifer and James are scheduled to go to trial in 11 weeks. Meanwhile, their son, now 17, will be sentenced on Dec. 7 and faces life without parole.
Ethan, who pleaded guilty in October 2022, has been charged with 24 counts, including four for first-degree murder for the deaths of Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, and Justin Shilling.
Six other students and one teacher were also injured in the shooting. Ethan was 15 at the time of the shooting.
His defense is hoping the judge will settle for a lesser sentence, but Judge Kwamé Rowe seems unlikely to pick that option. He claimed the crime was “not the result of impetuosity or recklessness.”
“Nor does the crime reflect the hallmarks of youth. Defendant carefully and meticulously planned and carried out the shooting,” he said in September.
After the crime, James and Jennifer took off after being charged, causing the US Marshals, FBI, and Michigan police to search for them.
They were found several hours later at an art studio in a commercial building in Detroit.