Prosecutors on Wednesday said they will ask a judge to sentence the Michigan parents convicted in their son’s deadly school shooting to 10 to 15 years in prison each, according to copies of the prosecution memos obtained by NBC News.
James and Jennifer Crumbley, both found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials, are facing up to 15 years in prison per the four counts — each representing a student killed by their son, Ethan, in 2021.
In Michigan, Oakland County prosecutors said, felonies that rise out of the same event must run concurrently, so the most the judge can impose is 15 years in total.
The prosecution in its sentencing memos argued to Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews that the parents’ cases called for sentences that exceed the advisory guideline range.
In each of the cases, prosecutors wrote that the parents’ “gross negligence changed an entire community forever.”
They both could have prevented the shooting with “tragically simple actions,” prosecutors wrote, adding that they “failed to take any action when presented with the gravest of dangers.”
The Crumbleys are set to be sentenced on the same day — April 9 — in an Oakland County court. It was not immediately clear if it would be at the same time, although families of the slain students are expected to read victim impact statements and court officials may choose to have the parents appear together for logistical purposes.
The sentencing would be the first time the Crumbley parents — who can’t communicate with each other from jail — could potentially see each other since they attended joint hearings before their trials were severed.
Their sentencing caps a winding legal saga as Ethan pleaded guilty as an adult to the shooting at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit and was sentenced to life in prison. The charges brought against James Crumbley, 47, and Jennifer, who turned 46 on Monday, were the first time in the U.S. the parents of a shooter were held legally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child.
Following James Crumbley’s conviction last month, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said the charges against the parents were based on evidence that the parents failed to adequately store a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun their son had access to, and therefore, could have stopped the looming attack. They were not accused of knowing about the rampage beforehand.
“I hope it leads to more prevention of gun violence,” McDonald told NBC News of the dual conviction. “I hope it leads to people taking more responsibility.”
McDonald declined to address the threats that James Crumbley allegedly made from jail during an interview immediately after the trial, but her office said in a later statement that “those threats are serious, and they also reflect a lack of remorse and a continued refusal to take accountability for his part in the deaths” of students Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17.
Sources close to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to NBC News that Crumbley allegedly told his sister over the course of multiple jailhouse phone calls that he was going to make it his goal in life to destroy McDonald.
He said he wanted to ruin her, that she was going to hell soon, that she better be scared and that she was done, according to the sources.
The sentencing memo for James Crumbley details the expletive-ridden threats in which he directly addressed McDonald on multiple recorded jail calls. In one call before the trial he said, “Karen McDonald, you’re going down.”
In other calls, Crumbley threatened retribution.
In an interview with NBC News before details of the alleged threats became public, James Crumbley’s lawyer, Mariell Lehman, said she and her client had “a disagreement about what was said and the nature of that stuff.”
The prosecution’s sentencing memo for James Crumbley referenced the alleged threats, saying “his jail calls show a total lack of remorse” and “he blames everyone but himself.”
The sentencing memo also cites James Crumbley’s belief, made in a pre-sentence report, that he was wrongly convicted and should be sentenced to time served.
“I feel horrible for what happened and would do anything to be able to go back in time and change it! But I can’t. And I had nothing to do with what happened,” James Crumbley wrote, according to the prosecution memo. “I don’t know why my son did what he did. HE is the only one who knows.”
Prosecutors wrote the request showed a”shameless lack of remorse” and was “a slap in the face” to the victims and their families.
Neither Lehman nor a lawyer for Jennifer Crumbley have said whether they plan to appeal the historic convictions.
They declined to comment on the prosecutor’s sentencing memorandum Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Oakland County Prosector’s Office released copies of an agreement with two Oxford school employees who testified in the parents’ trials. The “proffer” letters, a contract that typically allow witnesses to provide information without it being used against them in criminal proceedings, were signed in December 2021 as prosecutors built their case against the parents in the immediate months after the shooting.
The prosecutor’s office has steadfastly claimed that no witnesses were ever given immunity in response to local media reports that the prosecution gave assurances that their interviews with investigators wouldn’t be used against them.
The letters state that there is “no promise of favorable consideration” when it comes to possible charges against school officials, but also include a paragraph noting that anything the school officials said in the proffer interviews could not be used to bring charges against them.
“The prosecutor has said from the beginning that she did not see sufficient evidence to support criminal charges against anyone at the school, and that position has never changed,” Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor David Williams said in a statement last month.
Guidance counselor Shawn Hopkins and former dean of students Nicholas Ejak both met with the Crumbley parents and their son in the hours before the shooting began. They testified about encouraging the parents to bring Ethan home after a teacher found a drawing of a gun containing the words “help me” and “the thoughts won’t stop” on his math assignment.
They testified that no adult ever checked Ethan’s backpack for a gun the morning of the shooting, and Ejak told jurors that he even joked with a teacher about how heavy the bag was at one point. Hopkins said he thought Ethan would be better off staying at school instead of being home alone if his parents went back to work.
“Both witnesses subsequently testified under oath without any promises or protection, and they were given nothing for their testimony,” Williams said.
