James and Jennifer Crumbley, parents of Oxford shooting suspect, in court for preliminary hearing

ROCHESTER, Mich. – James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of alleged Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, are in court on Tuesday, Feb. 8, for a preliminary exam as an idea of ​​what evidence the prosecution will use in the case is being reviewed.

For the first time in a month, James and Jennifer are both in court where evidence and testimony from witnesses will be given during the preliminary examination. The parents of Ethan Crumbley were both charged shortly after the shooting at Oxford High School that killed four students and several injured others.

The hearing, originally set to start at 8:30 am, did not start until closer to 9:15. It started with the defense team asking for an adjournment in the preliminary hearing, citing a lack of sufficient time to review the evidence the prosecutor plans to review.

However, the judge rejected the request and said the hearing would take place on Tuesday.

From there, the prosecution requested the court order them to stop communicating. The Crumbley’s attorneys said they were not intentionally sending displays of affection to hurt families of the victims and “didn’t even know they were being broadcast.” The defense agreed that the two would cease communication in court.

Last week, prosecutor Karen McDonald’s office released a statement calling their actions “a serious distraction” and “traumatic for the family members” of the victims involved in the shooting.

RELATED: Ethan Crumbley’s parents drained son’s bank account, prosecutor says

James and Jennifer were both in restraints and their attorneys asked for permission for both James and Jennifer to have a free hand to communicate with their attorneys via notes. However, a deputy from the Oakland County Jail objected to this request, citing their maximum security status.

With that out of the way, the prosecution called its first witness, Kira Pennock, a horse farm owner in Metamora, Michigan, south of Lapeer in Oakland County.

Pennock said she first met Jennifer Crumbley through a mutual friend who married the Crumbley’s first horse. She testified that Jennifer purchased another one and told her she was drinking when she bought the horse for $5,000 in 2021.

She then testified the horse farm boarded and fed the animals, at a cost of $400 per month per horse. Additionally, Pennock said she was giving lessons to both Jennifer and James but it soon focused on Jennifer with an hourly lesson at $35 each week. She also testified that the Crumbleys would groom and tack them and ride them and would see them regularly every week. Pennock testified that she eventually saw much more of Jennifer than James and that he didn’t want much to do with the horses.

Pennock stated that there were marital problems and that Jennifer confided in her that she believed James was trying to meet up with singles. However, she said Ethan Crumbley then came forward and said he was the one who had looked up singles online.

Pennock said that she didn’t recall Jennifer talking positively, if at all, about Ethan and called her son ‘weird’. She said Jennifer said he only had one friend and spent a lot of time online and playing games. She also said Jennifer did not consider him ‘normal’.

“When she would talk about him it was ‘oh, he doesn’t do normal kid things’,” Pennock said.

On Nov. 30th, James was at the facility to put ointment on one of the horse’s legs. Pennock said that it was around noon on that day and she did not see Jennifer.

Jennifer was supposed to be at the facility around 4:30 that day for a training session.

Around 11 am, Jennifer confirmed she met with Ethan’s counselor in a Facebook messenger exchange. Pennock said she didn’t know what the meeting was about and asked if she wanted to proceed with a training session that day.

Jennifer said everything was okay but Ethan was having a hard time. She then shared a picture of what Ethan had drawn at school and confirmed she was planning to be there later in the day.

In the messages, Jennifer then said Ethan could benefit from horse therapy and encouraged her to bring him out.

Around 2:30 pm, Jennifer said she would not make it that day for their planned training session. This was an hour after the shooting at Oxford High School and Jennifer asked her to work one of her horses that day. Pennock asked about the shooting and asked if Ethan was okay. Jennifer did not respond to that message but sent one at 4:42 pm on Nov. 30, Jennifer messaged she ‘needed to sell her horses stat’.

Pennock told the defense attorneys she planned to take care of the horses. After it became clear that Ethan was the alleged shooter, Pennock confirmed she texted Jennifer that she did n’t think what had happened was her fault. “It sounds like Ethan was a troubled kid,” read one of the texts.

“I wish we had warnings. They made a terrible decision. He’s a good kid,” Jennifer replied in text messages.

Pennock said she tried to speak with Jennifer on the phone and was concerned that if the Crumbleys showed up at the farm, she feared danger would follow them and asked them not to drive to Metamora.

With both sides finished questioning Pennock, she was dismissed, and the next witness was called.

Andrew Smith is the COO of the real estate company that Jennifer worked for. I have testified that Crumbley worked there for about five years prior to Nov. 30, 2021.

Smith said that she was aware that Jennifer had to attend a meeting with school counselors that morning because she texted him a photo of Ethan’s drawings. It was the first time that Smith could recall that Jennifer missed work to go to school. After meeting with school counselors that morning, the Crumbleys did not remove Ethan from school even after the drawings were revealed.

Smith said Jennifer was invited to an office meeting that was not required and, had she opted to stay with her son instead of coming back into the office, he said Jennifer would not have been disciplined.

She did, however, return to the office that day.

Smith said he saw Jennifer at work around noon. When he asked how things were, she said she needed to get her son a counselor. Smith said she also told him that a family pet and grandparent had died, and she felt like a failure.

Smith said that he “thought she just felt sad about the situation” when she said she felt like a failure.

Around 1 pm, Smith said he learned there was a shooting at the school when he heard Jennifer screaming in her office.

“I think I was on a call or a Zoom and I walked out of my office to see what was going on. I saw Mrs. Crumbley say there was an active shooter at her child’s school, and she had to go,” Smith said .

About 20 minutes later, I received a message from Jennifer:

“The gun is gone and so are the bullets,” the message read.

Smith said he told her was praying for her and was unaware there were guns or ammunition in the family’s home.

Smith then read through the next string of messages from Jennifer:

“OMG andy, he’s going to kill himself. He must be the shooter. I need a lawyer. Ethan did it.” Smith read.

He couldn’t suggest a lawyer and testified that he didn’t even know where to start to find one for Jennifer.

At 3:39 pm on Nov. 30, Jennifer sent another message asking Smith not to judge her “what my son did.”

Smith said he was caught off guard by this message.

“I was surprised by that text. I was surprised she was worried about her job at that time. I thought she’d be more worried about what was going on at that time,” Smith said.

What is a preliminary examination?

A preliminary examination is when a judge will hear evidence presented by the prosecution. This includes documents, physical evidence, and witness testimony.

The prosecution presents the evidence but, according to FOX 2’s Charlie Langton, this is actually a hearing that’s used by the defense to find out what evidence the prosecution has and how well the witnesses will testify at trial, assuming it goes to trial.

MORE: Ethan Crumbley waives preliminary hearing, heading to trial

The judge then decides what evidence will be allowed and if the suspects are bound over for trial.

Most cases are bound over and Langton said he fully expects James and Jennifer to be sent to trial.

James and Jennifer Crumbley charged

Ethan’s parents were both charged two days later, on Friday Dec. 3, with 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter each.

“The parents were the only individuals in the position to know the access to weapons,” McDonald said at the time. The gun “seems to have been just freely available to that individual.”

RELATED: ‘Ethan don’t do it’: Parents of Oxford High School suspect sent messages during shooting

The Crumbleys were expected to turn themselves in on the charges and their attorneys said that day that they were returning to the area after a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) was issued.

“The Crumbleys left town on the night of the tragic shooting for their own safety. They are returning to the area to be arraigned. They are not fleeing from law enforcement despite recent comments in media reports,” the attorneys said in a statement.

What happened after the Oxford High School shooting?

During the most recent court hearing, the Crumbley parents were accused of draining their son’s bank account after the shooting, among other actions.

“On Nov. 30, just hours after their son murdered children in a school, they started making plans.” McDonald said.

McDonald said they stated making plans to sell horses and then bought four cell phones.

The day of the shooting, she said they also drained Ethan’s bank account of $3,000, leaving only $0.99.

RELATED: Tortured animals, hallucinations — Prosecutors claim Ethan Crumbley’s parents ignored red flags for months

The next day, Dec. 1, they checked into a different hotel where more contacts were made discussing the sale of their horses and withdrew $2,000 from their bank and then checked out of the hotel they were staying in, leaving one of their cars behind but parked so that the license plate could not be easily seen.

That’s the day McDonald said they drove to the art studio in Detroit and never left except to smoke and to move the car so that the plate was not easily visible. While in the building, they texted with the owner that they needed provisions including socks and bedding items.

Meanwhile, their attorneys said that they believed the Crumbleys wouldn’t have paid them if they had planned to run.

While inside the building, the doors were locked, even as police arrived and announced that they were there. They were found crouched behind a locked down where police took them into custody on Dec. 4.

When they were arrested, McDonald said they had Jennifer’s social security card, more than a dozen credit and gift cards, cell phones, and $6,600 in cash.

“Your honor, these are not the actions of individuals who wanted to turn themselves in. They had knowledge of the pending charges based on their text messages and what did they do? They didn’t go across the street,. There was a police station across the street from their hotel. There was nothing preventing them from staying right there,” McDonald said.