Jurors began deliberations Monday to decide whether Jennifer Crumbley is criminally responsible for the deaths of four students who died in 2021, when her son opened fire at a Michigan high school.
Crumbley, 45, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School. Her son, Ethan Crumbley, was sentenced last year to life in prison after the teen pleaded guilty to multiple counts of first-degree murder and other charges .
The case is the first in which parents have been charged for a mass shooting carried out by their child.
Prosecutors said Jennifer Crumbley was negligent in giving her son a gun even though he had shown signs of mental distress in the months before the shooting. They shared text messages between the pair in which he claimed that he had seen a demon in the family’s home and that it was haunted. Jennifer Crumbley testified that the texts were part of a running joke in the family and not signs of a mental breakdown.