PONTIAC, Mich. — School shooter Ethan Crumbley, 17, is appealing his life sentence for murder, and his lawyers will encourage him not to testify if he is called as a witness at his parents’ trials, one of which opened Tuesday in a Michigan courtroom.
The filing Monday from Crumbley’s new legal team came as defense lawyers for his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, began gearing up for her trial after she was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deadly 2021 shooting at Oxford High School. Her lawyer, Shannon Smith, has previously said she planned to call Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, as a witness.
It was initially unclear which parent would be tried first, but Crumbley’s father, James Crumbley, will face a separate trial for the same charge at a future date.
“Given Ethan Crumbley’s ongoing appeal and the substantial overlap in the subject matter in these three cases, we will advise Ethan to invoke his right to remain silent, should he be called to testify in either pending trial,” his lawyers with the State Appellate Defender’s Office wrote to Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews.
The lawyers, different than the public defenders who previously represented him, also said they had yet to speak with the teen.
Jury selection in Jennifer Crumbley’s trial began slowly on Tuesday, with the court saying it had summoned 340 prospective jurors for the day, but many arrived late due to inclement weather.
The jurors received a questionnaire centered on whether they may have had contact with someone who was at Oxford High School on the day of the shooting and whether they believe they can serve impartially.
Crumbley, wearing black glasses and a navy shirt with her gray hair tied back in a bun, told Matthews she agreed to waive her right to appeal for any conflict of interest related to her lawyer, who had previously also represented her husband. Her lawyer, Shannon Smith, loudly explained the jury selection process to her and appeared to send voice-to-text memos to court staff asking why prosecutors were taking so long to review the questionnaires.
Ethan Crumbley was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty in 2022 to murder, terrorism and other crimes in the killing of students Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Several others were injured. Prosecutors said he used a semi-automatic handgun that his parents had given him as an early Christmas gift when he opened fire on Nov. 30, 2021, in a school hallway in a planned attack.
Given his young age, Crumbley was subject to a special hearing last year to determine whether a sentence of life in prison without parole was appropriate. A judge also warned him that by pleading guilty, he could potentially give up his right to appeal because he was not convicted in a trial.
The charges against Jennifer Crumbley, 45, and her husband, James, 47, are a rare instance of parents being held criminally responsible in a mass shooting. If found guilty, the Crumbleys each face up to 15 years in prison and a $7,500 fine for each charge.
Last year, the father of a young man who will stand trial in the fatal shooting of seven people in a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct. The father, Robert Crimo Jr., had been charged in the case because he helped his son, Robert Crimo III, obtain his own gun permit even though he was too young at the time.
But the case against the Crumbleys is far more multifaceted, observers say, as Oakland County prosecutors will need to convince a jury that each parent played a role in the deaths and that they were the result of unlawful negligence, although neither parent intended for people to die.
Prosecutors contend the parents were made aware by school officials that their son had been caught searching for ammunition online and made a drawing that included a gun, a person who was shot and the message, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
Ethan Crumbley explained the drawing was done as part of a video game design, school officials said. But when his parents were called to the school, they declined to take him home. He would go on that day to commit the shooting.
In a news conference days later, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald suggested the Crumbleys had a duty to inform the school about his weapon when they were told about his drawing.
The parents are not accused of knowing about their son’s plan, which he had discussed in a video he recorded the day before the shooting, but prosecutors say the parents knew there were warning signs and he grew up in a turbulent home that affected his mental state.
A gag order imposed by Matthews in 2022 bars both county prosecutors and the separate lawyers for the Crumbleys from speaking publicly.
The school district and staff cannot be sued in the case because of governmental immunity.
Ben Johnson, a lawyer representing Oxford families of two of the student victims and other survivors, said his clients want to see the Crumbleys held accountable.
“Those parents sat in that room with those administrators and didn’t tell them about the gun, didn’t tell them about all the problems this kid was having at home,” Johnson said on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “Didn’t tell them about any of it.”
Selina Guevara reported from Pontiac and Erik Ortiz reported from New York.
