Crumbley Parents' Trials Start Tuesday In Oxford Shooting Case: What To Know

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI — More than two years after the deadly Oxford school shooting, the parents of the shooter are set to go to trial.

Jennifer and James Crumbley, who were each charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the shooting, are scheduled for trial Tuesday in Oakland County. Jennifer will be tried first, starting Tuesday, and James' trial will start on March 5, according to court documents.

Jury selection will begin Tuesday in Oakland County, and each trial is expected to last roughly three weeks. They are the first set of parents to be charged in connection with a deadly school shooting.

If convicted on all charges, each parent faces up to 60 years in prison. They are being held in the Oakland County Jail on $500,000 bond each. The couple's son, Ethan Crumbley, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in December for the deadly shooting.

The four students killed in the shooting were 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin and 17-year-old Justin Shilling.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews ruled earlier this month that jurors will see the footage of the deadly shooting their son carried out at Oxford High School in November 2021. She will also allow some eyewitness testimony, but will not allow any evidence claiming the couple's son tortured a baby bird months before the deadly Oxford school shooting and evidence claiming the parents' infidelity.

The couple maintains that they had no idea what their son was planning. Moreover, defense lawyers argued the couple cannot be held accountable because they were not "directly involved" in the Oxford school shooting, and are not "responsible for the deaths of others."

Prosecutors, on the other hand, argue the charges are not overstepping, and say they have evidence proving gross negligence by the parents. Prosecutors claim the couple ignored disturbing warning signs from their son leading up to the deadly shooting, and instead of getting him help, they bought him a gun.

Although the couple are the first set of parents charged in connection with a school shooting, they aren't the first parents charged in a mass shooting.

Last year, a mother was sentenced to 21 months in prison after a 6-year-old Virginia boy shot his teacher using his mother’s gun.

An Illinois man pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct after he helped his son obtain a gun that he later used to kill seven people. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail last November. Another Illinois father was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he illegally returned several guns to his son, who later used one of the weapons to kill four people at a Nashville Waffle House.