PONTIAC, Mich. — Prosecutors all but wrapped up their case Tuesday against the father of a Michigan school shooter by showing passages from the teen’s journal expressing despair over his mental health and a photo of a gun box, unlocked and empty, on his parents’ bed.
“I have zero help for my mental problems and it's causing me to shoot up the ... school,” Ethan Crumbley wrote. “I want help but my parents don't listen to me so I can’t get any help.”
The handwritten journal was found in the 15-year-old's backpack in an Oxford High School bathroom where he executed Justin Shilling, one of four teens killed on Nov. 30, 2021.
Ethan's father, James Crumbley, 47, is on trial for involuntary manslaughter. He’s accused of failing to safely store a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun used by his son and ignoring signs of the boy’s mental distress.
Assistant prosecutor Marc Keast suggested he would rest his case Wednesday morning. Ethan's mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was found guilty of the same charges last month.
In his journal, the shooter said he was “begging” his dad to buy the gun but that James Crumbley wasn't in favor and the family was having financial problems.
On another page, Ethan wrote that they had acquired the Sig Sauer, “but I will have to find where my dad hid” it. He subsequently said he had discovered the gun and was poised to attack the school.
He said he was prepared to spend the rest of his life in prison, according to an excerpt read to the jury by Det. Lt. Tim Willis.
James Crumbley appeared to wipe away tears as Willis' testimony ended with a brief school security video of the shooting.
The gun was purchased by him during the long Thanksgiving weekend, four days before the shooting. Ethan and his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, used it to fire at targets at a shooting range.
Earlier Tuesday, the fourth day of trial, jurors saw a photo of an empty gun case and an ammunition box found on the couple's bed when investigators searched the Crumbley home.
Jurors also saw photos of Ethan’s messy bedroom, which had targets from the shooting range displayed on the wall.
Prosecutors have been trying to show that the father was grossly negligent in how he took care of a gun that was secretly toted to school by his son.
“I found no evidence that a cable lock was ever installed on that firearm,” federal agent Brett Brandon testified Monday, describing how the gun was kept at the Crumbley home.
Conversely, James Crumbley had two smaller guns in a small gun safe in the house, Oakland County sheriff's detective Adam Stoyek said.
Defense attorney Mariell Lehman has argued that James Crumbley was not aware that Ethan had access to the 9 mm gun, a point she emphasized again during cross-examination when the journal was introduced into evidence.
Stoyek said James Crumbley was cooperative while in a patrol car in the aftermath of the tragedy. A video camera in the car recorded him telling the investigator about other guns in the house, including a BB gun.
“It's unloaded but it looks like a freakin’ assault rifle," James Crumbley said in the video.
The Crumbleys are the first U.S. parents to be charged with having criminal responsibility for a mass school shooting committed by a child.
They weren't easy to find back in 2021 despite knowing they'd been charged. The jury saw police video of a wee-hours arrest in a friend's Detroit art studio where they were sleeping on the floor, 12 hours after charges were widely publicized.
James Crumbley could he heard wailing before he calmed down. An eagle-eyed coffee roaster in the same commercial building had learned through social media that police were looking for the couple and spotted their Kia vehicle in the parking lot.
“I can't believe it," Luke Kirtley said on a 911 call. “They're here!”
The Crumbleys had more than $6,000 in cash with them and clothes for more than one night. Defense lawyers insist they were not fleeing and had planned to appear in court later that morning.
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, is serving a life prison sentence for murder and terrorism.
He told a judge when he pleaded guilty that the gun was “not locked” when he stuffed it in his backpack before school.
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