The parents of a teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school can face trial for involuntary manslaughter, the state appeals court said Thursday in a groundbreaking case of criminal responsibility for the acts of a child.
While, contrary to belief, this is not the first such case where parents are held to be responsible for the criminal act of their child, it is indeed infrequent. In the rare instances that parents of school shooters are prosecuted, they are normally charged with crimes such as child abuse, child neglect and failure to properly secure a firearm. The charge lodged against the Crumbleys, involuntary manslaughter, also known as gross negligent homicide, is even more uncommon.
The court noted that the murders would not have happened if the parents hadn’t purchased a gun for Ethan Crumbley or if they had taken him home from Oxford High School on the day of the shooting, when staff became alarmed about his extreme drawings, the appeals court said.
What’s more, James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of failing to secure the gun. Besides the deaths of four students, seven people were wounded.
Crumbley, 16, has pleaded guilty to terrorism and murder and could be sentenced to life in prison without parole. He was 15 at the time of the November 2021 shooting.
Attorneys for the parents argue that what would happen that day was not foreseeable. They acknowledge that bad decisions were made but not ones that should rise to involuntary manslaughter charges.
Judge Michael Riordan said parents shouldn’t be hauled to court for “subpar, odd or eccentric” care of their kids. But the evidence against the Crumbleys, he added, is much more serious.
Both Crumbley parents have pleaded not guilty to four counts each of involuntary manslaughter. If convicted on all counts, they each face a maximum prison sentence of 60 years and maximum fines of US$30,000. Unable to make the combined $1 million bond, they appeared before a judge on Dec. 3, 2021, in prison uniforms and chains.
Many were surprised when James and Jennifer Crumbley were charged for their alleged role in the tragedy. Although rare, this is not unprecedented, as most people believe. In 2000, Jamelle James, a Michigan resident, pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter for leaving his handgun in a shoebox in his bedroom. At the time, James lived in an apartment prosecutors described as a “flophouse” that was shared with a number of people, including two young children.
Criminal law, unlike civil law, is less likely to hold defendants liable for the actions of a third party, even if that third party is the defendant’s child. This is because in criminal law defendants face incarceration and the associated stigma that comes with a conviction.
In the present case of Jennifer and James Crumbley, “Whether a jury actually finds that causation has been proven after a full trial, where the record will almost surely be more expansive — including evidence produced by defendants — is an issue separate from what we decide today,” the court said in a 3-0 opinion.
“The morning of the shooting, EC drew a picture of a body that appeared to have two bullet holes in the torso, apparently with blood streaming out of them, which was near another drawing of a handgun that resembled the gun his parents … had very recently gifted to him,” Judge Riordan said. This, he added, it amounted to “visual evidence” that Ethan was contemplating gunshot wounds on someone.
The Crumbleys were summoned to school for a meeting about the drawing, but didn’t take Ethan home.
The parents’ lawyers declined to comment Thursday, citing a gag order. They’ll likely ask the Michigan Supreme Court to review the case, particularly because that court had ordered the appeals court to hear arguments.
Buck Myre, the father or Tate Myre, one of the students killed in the Oxford High School shooting, stated, “I’m going to respond to this like we’ve taught our kids, and what I’ve always coached the boys up on, I’m going to fight I’m a junkyard dog.”
