The mother of an American teenager sentenced to life in prison for killing four students in his high school in 2021 with a weapon given by his parents was found guilty on Tuesday of manslaughter.
The 12 jurors, who began their deliberations Monday morning at the court in Pontiac, Michigan, delivered their verdict early Tuesday afternoon. Sentencing for Jennifer Crumbley, 45, mother of Ethan Crumbley, has been set for April 9.
The father, James Crumbley, 47, is due to be tried separately in March.
The parents are being prosecuted for manslaughter resulting from a failure in their legal duty to control the actions of their child, aged 15 at the time of the facts. They face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
James Crumbley | AFP
Ms. Crumbley failed in her “elementary duty of vigilance,” Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said on Friday on the last day of the hearing, believing that an initiative on her part could have avoided the killing.
“She could have searched her backpack, she could have asked her son where the gun was. She could have put the ammunition under lock and key, she could have blocked the gun,” she particularly underlined.
But defense lawyer Shannon Smith cited the “unpredictable” nature of the tragedy.
Jennifer Crumbley | Getty Images via AFP
“Can all parents be responsible for everything their children do?” argued the lawyer, worrying about a “very dangerous procedure for all parents and one of the first of this type “.
Jennifer Crumbley testified last week that her husband brought home the Sig Sauer 9mm pistol as an early Christmas present a few days before the shooting and that she took her son to a shooting range the next day.
“As a parent you spend your life protecting your child from danger. You never imagine having to stop him from hurting anyone else,” she said.
Ethan Crumbley | AFP
Despite a summons from parents at the school on the day of the tragedy, the teachers having discovered an “alarming” drawing in place of Ethan Crumbley and advising him to be followed psychologically, they left without bringing him home.
Ethan Crumbley was tried as an adult and sentenced in December to life without parole in an Oakland County court.
Ethan Crumbley | AFP
The teenager pleaded guilty in October 2022 to bringing the gun with 50 bullets in his backpack to his high school and shooting the high school students.
He killed two girls and two boys aged 14 to 17 and injured six other students and a teacher.
