James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, who killed four students at his Michigan high school in November of 2021, have been sentenced.
After being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter following two separate trials earlier this year, they were sentenced together for 10 to 15 years each, 15 being the maximum sentence.
It is a legal first, a novel case, in the tragic epidemic that has become school shootings in the United States, as it's the first time a parent is held directly responsible for the actions of their child in a shooting.
© GettyAhead of the sentencing, the parents of the four victims – Hanna St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, and Justin Shilling, 17, gave heartbreaking impact statements in honor of their children, and requested that the Crumbleys receive the maximum sentence possible.
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Per CNN, in court documents filed last week, prosecutors requested that the judge sentence both of the Crumbleys to 10 to 15 years each in state prison.
© GettyWhy were James and Jennifer Crumbley held responsible?
The case against the Crumbleys sets an interesting legal precedent for how instances of school shootings are viewed in the court of law, and who can be held responsible for them.
In the case of the Crumbleys, their negligence as parents and their disregard for alarming signs of a concerning mental state in their son, at the time 15, were heavily taken into consideration. In December of last year, Ethan was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting.
During his own sentencing hearing, Ethan maintained of his parents: "They 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," however there were several red flags that discredited his claim.
© GettyWhat were some of the signs?
First and foremost, James and Jennifer were the ones who bought their son the gun, a semi-automatic nine-millimeter SIG Sauer, one day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday, as an early Christmas present; Jennifer took Ethan to a shooting range that Saturday.
The morning of the shooting, November 30, they were both called into the school, Oxford High School, after administrators expressed concerns over some alarming drawings Ethan had made, including one of a figure lying in a puddle of blood with bullet holes, and of a gun similar to the one he was gifted. Though prosecution did indicate Jennifer was alarmed at the time, she did not make any mention of the gun they had just gifted him – which resembled the one in the drawing – and he remained in school, where he later shot the four students, and wounded six others, including a teacher.
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Later, several signs of irresponsible gun ownership were uncovered during their trials; though the gun was sold with a cable lock, and was stored in a gun safe, when police arrived to the Crumbleys' home after the shooting, the safe was still set to 000, generally the default factory combination for most gun safes, and the cable lock appeared to have never been used.
The prosecution also highlighted concerning texts from Ethan to his mom, insinuating he was having hallucinations, which she didn't answer for two days. Moreover, in uncovered conversations between Ethan and his best friend, he said he felt like he was "mentally and physically dying," and that when he asked his parents to take him to the doctor, his mother reportedly laughed, and his dad "just gave me some pills and told me to, 'suck it up.'"
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