Ethan Crumbley’s parents sentenced to up
to 15 years for son’s fatal school shooting
Ethan Crumbley’s parents were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years behind bars Tuesday for their son’s 2021 massacre that left four students dead — the first time parents have been sentenced in a US mass school shooting.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were handed down the prison time by Judge Cheryl Matthews in a Pontiac, Michigan courtroom after they were found guilty on involuntary manslaughter charges at separate trials in March and February, respectively.
“These convictions are not about poor parenting, these convictions confirm repeated acts or lack of acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train, about repeatedly ignoring things that would make a reasonable person feel the hair on the back of their neck stand up,” Matthews said before announcing the sentences.
The convictions are the first time in US history parents have been held accountable for a school shooting carried out by their child.
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| If you have a gift of discernment you may see more than just Ethan Crumbley |
The judge blamed Jennifer for glorifying owning guns and for her “dispassionate and apathetic” attitude toward Ethan.
“Each of the defendants’ gross negligence has caused unimaginable suffering to hundreds of others,” the judge said.
Prosecutors had asked Judge Matthews to put James, 47, and Jennifer, 46, away for at least 10 years for the rampage that killed four students, injured six more and also injured a teacher at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021.
Both parents, who’ve been locked up for the two-and-a-half-years since their arrests, asked for no additional prison time. Jennifer requested she be released with GPS tracking to live with her lawyer.
Speaking before the sentencing, Jennifer — wearing black and white jail clothes — was allowed to address the court, where she said she had found god and claimed she had no idea what her son was capable of.
But, don't you think you should have?
She said: “The gravity and weight this has taken on my heart and soul cannot be expressed in words, just as I know there is nothing I can say to ease the pain and suffering of the victims and their families.
“If I even thought my son would be capable of crimes like these, my actions would have absolutely been different …He was not the son I knew when I woke up on Nov. 30. The Ethan I knew was a good quiet kid.”
James — wearing orange jail scrubs — was also given an opportunity to speak from the defense table where he emotionally apologized for the “pain and agony” his son had caused.
“Part of you will be missing forever but please know I am truly very sorry. I am sorry for your loss as a result of what my son did. I cannot express how much I wish that I had known what was going on with him or what was going to happen.
The case against Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley's parents
- Ethan Crumbley’s parents, James and Jennifer, have each been sentenced to between 10 and 15 years behind bars in a Michigan court in their son’s 2021 school shooting, which left four dead and six injured.
- They are now the first parents in the nation’s history to be convicted of manslaughter in a school shooting carried out by their child. Both were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter charges at separate trials in March and February.
- The couple faced prison for failing to intervene despite obvious warning signs their son was troubled.
- Prosecutors told jurors James failed to intervene despite his teen son’s unstable mental state, even neglecting to lock up the semi-automatic handgun the dad bought for Ethan as a Christmas presen before the shooting.
- James was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March and Jennifer was found guilty in February after jurors found her to be an unreliable witness.
- In September 2023, Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the deaths of Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16.
“You know that what my son did. I was not aware of that or that he was planning it or that he obtained access to the firearms in my house, there is no evidence that suggested that,” he said.
Addressing Judge Matthews, he added: “I’m simply going to ask that you sentence me in a fair and just way.”
Before the Crumbley parents spoke, family members of the slain students — Justin Shilling, 17; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16 — told the judge about the devastating toll the shooting has had on their lives.
Baldwin’s mom, Nicole Beausoleil, through tears said she wishes she could have taken “the bullet that day so [Madisyn] can continue living the life she deserves.”
“You failed as parents,” Beausoleil said to the Crumbleys. “The punishment that you face will never be enough, it will never bring her back.”
Shilling’s parents, Jill Soave and Hank Shilling, both asked Matthews to impose the maximum sentence possible for the agony the Crumbleys caused them.
“The blood of our children is on your hands too,” Hank Shilling said to the two Crumbleys.
And St. Juliani’s older sister, Reina blasted the Crumbleys for failing as parents and for causing the victims’ “everlasting nightmare.”
“Instead of giving quality time and compassion, you gift your son a gun,” Reina said.
Reina and Hana’s dad, Steve St. Juliania said his daughter’s murder “has destroyed a large portion of my very soul.”
At their trials, jurors heard testimony about how the parents went to the school the day of the shooting to discuss a violent drawing found on Ethan’s math assignment with officials. The pictures showed a gun, a bullet and a person bleeding with the words, “Blood everywhere,” and “The thoughts won’t stop — help me.”
But James and Jennifer didn’t take Ethan, then 15, out of school that day, instead returning to work after the school gave them list of mental health services, according to trial testimony.
Staffers didn’t insist Ethan be removed from school grounds but they also weren’t aware that the parents had bought their son a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun only four days earlier, which looked like the gun in Ethan’s drawing, jurors learned at trial.
Ethan, now 17, copped to murder and terrorism charges and is serving a term of life imprisonment without parole.
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