Callum Jones
A Michigan mother has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for failing to stop her son from carrying out a deadly school shooting.
Jennifer Crumbley is the first parent from the US to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter over a mass shooting carried out by a minor.
Crumbley was charged on four counts - one for each deceased victim - and now faces up to 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Crumbley was grossly negligent and could have foreseen the violence before her son opened fire at Oxford High School.
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It was concluded that she failed to tell school officials that the family had a new 9mm handgun that Ethan Crumbley ultimately used to kill four other teenagers.
The mother was also accused of making the gun accessible at home and not tending to her son’s mental health.
The school was concerned about a macabre drawing of a gun, bullet and wounded man on the 15-year-old’s maths assignment, accompanied by desperate words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.”
But Ethan was allowed to stay in school November 30 2021, following a brief meeting with the parents, who did not take him home.
However, the teenager pulled the gun from his backpack that afternoon and shot ten students and a teacher, killing four students.
No one had checked his backpack.
The gun had been purchased just four days earlier on Black Friday by his father, James Crumbley.
Crumbley also took her son to a shooting range that same weekend.
The 45-year-old mother told jurors that she would not have done anything differently but wished her son had 'killed us instead'. She denied that he had mental health problems.
James Crumbley 47, is scheduled for trial in March on the same involuntary manslaughter charges.
Ethan, now 17, is serving a life sentence for murder and terrorism.
The teen was sentenced in December to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In her unprecedented involuntary manslaughter trial on February 1, Crumbley testified that her husband was in charge of buying and storing guns in the home.
This came after it had been previously confirmed that the couple had allowed Ethan to purchase a handgun.
Jennifer had previously told the jurors: “I just didn’t feel comfortable being in charge of that. It was his thing. I didn’t feel comfortable putting the lock thing on it."
"I was more angry that they cut into our Christmas tree time." she said when asked if she had objected to the purchase.
"I usually cut my Christmas tree down right after I get back from shopping, but I had to wait for them, so I was irritated."
Crumbley will be sentenced on April 9.