PONTIAC, Mich. — For the first time in U.S. history, parents of a school shooter have been found guilty in the shooting their child committed.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were both found guilty of manslaughter after their son killed four people and injured seven more at Oxford High School in November 2021.
Jennifer was found guilty in February and James was found guilty Thursday. Both parents' trials lasted about two weeks.
Their son, now 17, pleaded guilty to charges including first-degree murder and terrorism back in 2022. He is now serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.
The shooting happened Nov. 30, 2021.
Just days earlier, James took his son, then 15, to a gun store in Oakland County, where he bought a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun. The shooter later posted a photo of the gun on his social media, where he captioned it, "Just got my new beauty today."
That same weekend, Jennifer took her son to a shooting range to practice with the gun.
The day before the shooting, the shooter was caught searching for ammunition on his phone during class. After being informed of this by a school official, Jennifer texted her son, "I'm not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught."
The morning of the shooting, James and Jennifer were called to the school to discuss drawings a teacher found on his homework, including a gun and a wounded man with the phrases, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. My life is useless.”
While school officials urged James and Jennifer to take their son home, they declined. Their son returned to class without his backpack being searched, and school officials were not informed of his access to a gun.
Hours later, he shot and killed four students—Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16—and injured seven others, including a teacher.
During both trials, juries saw snippets from the shooter's journal.
“I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the ... school,” he wrote. “I want help but my parents don’t listen to me so I can’t get any help.”
Both juries found the parents guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter. They are expected to return to court for sentencing on Tuesday, April 9. They could face a possible minimum sentence of as much as 10 years in prison.
“This verdict does not bring back their children, but it does mark a moment of accountability and will hopefully be another step to address and end gun violence,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald.
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