James Crumbley involuntary manslaughter trial, Day 2: Watch replay
Jurors heard a second day of testimony Friday in the involuntary manslaughter trial of James Crumbley, father of the Oxford High School shooter. They went home for the weekend shortly after 2:30 p.m., with the trial moving somewhat faster than attorneys anticipated.
The parents, whose then-15-year-old son murdered four students and injured six students and teacher on Nov. 30, 2021, are the first in America to face criminal accountability for a child's school shooting. The mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter last month and faces up to 15 years in prison when she's sentenced April 9.
The shooter, Ethan Crumbley, pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. He carried out his rampage with a gun his father took him to buy on Black Friday, just days before the killings.
Assistant principal describes encounter with shooter
Jurors heard from Kristy Gibson-Marshall, the assistant principal at Oxford High School who came into contact with the shooter during his rampage. According to her testimony, after the school went into lockdown, she ventured down a hallway toward the sound of gunfire and came upon the gunman.
“The shooter was coming close to me. As he got close, I saw that it was Ethan,” Gibson-Marshall said, adding she was surprised. She had known him since he was in middle school. “He was a sweet kid,” she said.
“I asked him if he was OK,” she recalled. “He looked away from me.”
That also was unlike Ethan Crumbley, she said, adding: “He would have talked to me.
“He kept walking. I walked with him for a couple of steps and then I turned my back on him because I had a student that I needed to check on.”
That student was Tate Myre, who was lying face down near a trash can. He had been shot in the head, she said, but still had a pulse.
“His mom was my PTO president,” she said while choking up. “I began to give him rescue breaths … I continued until they took him from me,” referring to emergency workers.
Myre did not survive.
During her testimony, James Crumbley wiped tears from his eyes, which he continued to do even after she left the stand.
Gun store manager tells of Black Friday sale
Cammy Back, office manager at Acme Shooting Goods in Oxford, testified that she was involved in the sale of the 9mm Sig Sauer SP2022 to James Crumbley on Nov. 26, 2021. Four days later, his son used the firearm to gun down his classmates.
Back testified that James Crumbley was a “familiar face” at the store and had purchased two guns there in June 2021. When he came into the store, he had a young person with him who Back said she later learned was his son. Back testified James Crumbley asked to see the Sig Sauer and said “he had had his eye on” it.
The prosecution showed a portion of a firearms transaction record showing yes or no questions James Crumbley answered as part of the purchase. It shows he checked the box indicating that he was the actual buyer of the firearm. That question included a warning on bold: “You are not the actual transferee/buyer if you are acquiring the firearm(s) on behalf of another person. If you are not the actual transferee/buyer, the licensee cannot transfer the firearm(s) to you.”
Back also testified that the Sig Sauer came in a plastic case that did not have a lock mechanism on it, but a cable lock was provided with the gun purchase.
She also said she didn’t see any conversations between James Crumbley and his son while they were at the store.
Detective acknowledges not knowing if father saw shooter's texts
Friday's testimony opened with Crumbley's attorney Mariell Lehman cross-examining former Oakland County Sheriff's Detective Edward Wagrowski, who evaluated text messages, phone calls and social media accounts of the Crumbley family.
Lehman spent much of her time questioning the detective about what he did not know. Specifically, she got him to concede that he found no evidence that James Crumbley knew about the troubling texts his son was sending his friend late at night in the months before the shooting, when the boy alleged he was asking his parents in vain for help with mental health issues, including hearing voices.
For example, Lehman asked him about a text the shooter sent his friend on April 4, 2021, which reads: "I actually asked my dad to take me to the doctor the other day, and he just gave me some pills and said to 'suck it up.' My mom laughed when i told her."
On cross-examination, Wagrowski conceded that he does not know if James Crumbley ever saw or knew about that text, and that he found no evidence that the boy actually did ask to go to the doctor — other than him saying so in the text — and that he does not know what kinds of pills the boy is referring to.
Lehman suggested it could be Tylenol, while Wagrowski suggested it could be Xanax, given other communications the parents had.
But Lehman countered that the conversation involving Xanax was from a different time period and that the parents actually discussed giving him melatonin.
Lehman also asked Wagrowski to explain how much he really knows about a video the shooter sent to his friend in the summer of 2021, in which the boy's hand is seen clicking a gun and loading a magazine into it.
'You don't know; that's my point'
"You don’t know if James is next to his son, across from his son," or if he was in the room or even heard anything when this happened, Lehman asserted.
Wagrowski said he did not have that information, though he opined that in a house as small as the Crumbleys', that a clicking sound could have been heard.
"You don't know; that's my point," Lehman said.
Lehman also asked Wagrowski about an Instagram post that the shooter made on the day his dad purchased the gun that he would use four days later in the massacre. The post reads: "Just got my new beauty."
Lehman asked Wagrowski if there is anything to show that James Crumbley saw this post. No, he answered.
She also asked him about social media posts by his wife and son that included pictures of the two at a shooting range.
"There’s nothing illegal or improper about taking your child to a shooting range, or posting photos of the target that you use," she said.
No, the detective answered.
Lehman also questioned him about perhaps the most damning evidence in the case: the troubling drawing the shooter made on the morning of the shooting, in which he drew a picture of a gun, a human being bleeding and the words, 'The thoughts won't stop. Help me."
"James obviously expressed some concern," Lehman said, referring to the text he sent his wife after first seeing that drawing that said: "my god, wtf."
Lehman did not question the witness about what happened in the school counselor's meeting that day with the parents, as the detective said he didn't know details about that meeting.
But she did address other actions of James Crumbley that day, noting that after an active-shooter alert went out, he drove to the Meijer parking lot, which was the reunification center for parents and kids, and called his son two times. He didn't know the boy was in custody already.
James Crumbley called his wife and then drove home and called 911.
"In that 911 call he told the dispatcher that he saw and heard the sirens, he said that he went to the Meijer, that his son was a student, that he heard that there was a shooting, that he discovered that his son was missing, that he didn’t know if his son took the gun, and that he was freaking out," Lehman said.
"That is correct," Wagrowski said.
On redirect examination, the prosecutor zeroed in on James Crumbley's actions after he first saw the troubling drawing on the morning of the shooting. The parents were summoned to the counselor's office for a meeting, and left to return to their jobs, promising to get their son help within 48 hours.
James Crumbley left the counselor's office that day and made DoorDash deliveries — all of them in Oxford, Wagrowski testified.
"Did he ever stop home?" Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast asked in an effort to show that Crumbley could have stopped to look for the gun, and would have discovered it missing. "He drove past his house four times from the time he saw this, and never once did he stop at home?"
"No, he did not," Wagrowski answered.
Crumbley made threats on jailhouse phone
Day 1 of testimony in James Crumbley's trial was almost an instant replay of his wife's case, but it ended on a dramatic note, with the jury being sent home early and a visibly irritated Crumbley mouthing "no" emphatically to his lawyer.
Turned out, Crumbley was caught making threatening statements on a jailhouse telephone and in electronic messages, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office confirmed to the Free Press late Thursday, noting "his access to a phone or electronic messaging is now limited to communication with his lawyer." Authorities did not disclose the nature of the threats or toward whom they were made.
This new information surfaced late in the day Thursday during Crumbley's trial, in which prosecutors are seeking to hold him responsible for the 2021 school shooting carried out by his son.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: James Crumbley trial, Day 2: Watch replay
