'Smallest Things' Could Have Stopped Oxford Shooting: Closing Remarks

PONTIAC, MI — Prosecutors and defense attorneys wrapped up their arguments Friday in the trial of Jennifer Crumbley, and now jurors must decide if she is a criminal or just a bad parent.

Jennifer and her husband James Crumbley were each charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the deadly Oxford school shooting that left four dead on Nov. 30, 2021 and was carried out by the couple's son. The couple each face up to 15 years in prison.

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.

Prosecutors claim Jennifer and her husband ignored disturbing warning signs from their son leading up to the deadly shooting, and instead of getting him help, they bought him a gun.

On the day of the shooting, prosecutors said Jennifer and her husband could have done numerous things to prevent the shooting after leaving a school meeting with counselors. They said Jennifer could have stopped at home to check for the gun, searched her son's backpack or even acknowledged him during the meeting.

Prosecutors also said the couple could have told school officials about the gun they bought their son and that he asked them for help, as counselors said they were worried the child might harm himself.

"Ordinary care would have included all of those things," McDonald said during her closing argument. "She walked out of that school, and she knew something bad might happen. She walked out of that school when just the smallest, the smallest of things, could have saved, could have helped, Hana and Tate and Madisyn and Justin," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said during her closing argument.

The defense, on the other hand, maintains that Jennifer Crumbley had no idea what her son was planning, and that she should not be responsible for the deaths of others.

Defense attorney Shannon Smith said that no one, not even Jennifer, could have expected her son to shoot up the school. She said Jennifer's son wasn't mentally ill, but was "a skilled manipulator."

"At the end of the day, my kids could just as easily grab a knife without me knowing it ... and walk out the door ... and my son could kill somebody with my butcher block knife that I would have never expected to happen," Smith said during her closing argument.

Prosecutors argued Jennifer paid more attention to her horses than her son, who was pleading for help.

In a string of text messages from March 2021, prosecutors said Jennifer ignored alarming text messages from her son, who claimed the house was haunted and that he was seeing demons in March 2021.

Jennifer testified Thursday that her son never asked her for mental health treatment and nothing suggested that he needed help. She also said her son's claims about the house being haunted was just a joke they were playing games, and that he was just "messing around."

"Big deal, Jennifer’s at the barn and their son’s saying goofy stuff," Smith said during closing arguments.

Prosecutors played tapes inside the courtroom Friday of phone calls Jennifer had in December 2021 with her father while she was in jail. In the recordings, Jennifer asked about creating a fundraising page to pay for boarding her horses, but didn't speak about her son in the phone calls until 10 days into her incarceration at the Oakland County Jail.

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Prosecutors pointed out that Jennifer never brought her son with her to the farm where the horses lived, and noted that she spent tens of thousands of dollars on them. When prosecutors asked why she never took her son to the stable, she said he wasn't into horses.

"He was not into horses," Jennifer said of her son. "I would ask (if he wanted to come) every time I went to the barn, but he didn’t want to go."

Prosecutors hammered Jennifer about social media posts she posted about buying her son the gun he used in the deadly shooting as a Christmas gift.

"It was gifted to him, not only was it gifted to him, she bragged about it on social media before the shooting," McDonald said during her closing argument. "This is about Jennifer Crumbley's actions."

Jennifer said she and her husband bought the gun for their son to use at the shooting range, not for him to freely access.

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Moreover, Jennifer said it was her husband James' responsibility to secure the gun because she doesn't know much about guns. She also said there was a lock with gun case that was stored in a cabinet in her bedroom.

When prosecutors questioned Jennifer about the math worksheet that had a drawing of a gun that looked "identical" to the gun the just bought for him, Jennifer said it just looked like a gun to her.

Prosecutors claim Jennifer and her husband didn't remove her son from school on the day of the shooting, because she was "mad at him." Jennifer acknowledged that she never took her son to see a psychiatrist or counselor and that she noticed he was "acting depressed." She said she and her husband planned on getting him help, as instructed by the counselor.

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While defense lawyers argued Jennifer and her son were close and spent time together, showing multiple social media photos of them together on vacations, prosecutors argued her son's journal told a different story.

Prosecutors argued the journal had numerous disturbing passages about his mental health issues and plans to shoot up the school leading up to the deadly shooting. Jennifer said she never saw the passages.

At his sentencing, Jennifer's son, Ethan Crumbley, said "they (his parents) did not know, and I did not tell them what I planned to do, so they are not at fault for what I’ve done."

Lastly, prosecutors argued Jennifer and her husband were hiding out after the shooting because they had an idea they were going to be charged. Defense lawyers argued the couple fled their home because they didn't feel safe, and they were in contact with them about turning themselves in before a Detroit fugitive team arrested them in an art studio.

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Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in December for the deadly shooting. He has since appealed his life sentence and will not testify during his parents' trials.

James' trial will start on March 5, according to court documents.