DETROIT — A day before four students were killed at a Michigan school in November, the mother of the teenager charged with carrying out the mass shooting sent him a text message asking if he had shown teachers a “pic of your new gun,” an investigator testified in court Tuesday.
According to prosecutors, Jennifer and James Crumbley never told school officials that they had bought their son, Ethan Crumbley, a gun. “Did you at least show them a picture of your new gun?” Jennifer Crumbley texted her son after learning the news of him getting in trouble at school. My god,” he texted back.
Ethan Crumbley added: “I only told them I went to the range with you on Saturday. … I guess the teachers can’t keep their eyes off my screen.”
The text message string between the mother and son came after a voicemail was left on the Crumbleys’ answering machine. It was school officials notifying the parents that Ethan Crumbley was seen investigating ammunition on his cellphone while in class.
“Seriously?? Looking up bullets at school?” Jennifer Crumbley wrote in a Nov. 29 text message she sent her son from her.
Ethan Crumbley wrote back that he was only “curious,” that he had a bullet cartridge in his room so decided to look up the bullets during the first hour, and that the school told him he’s “all good.” He also told his mom that he wanted to listen to the voicemail the school left at his house from him.
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Jennifer Crumbley told him she would save the message, and assured him he wasn’t in trouble. “LOL I’m not mad,” she texted her son from her. “You have to learn how to not get caught.”
A judge must decide if there’s enough evidence to send Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, James Crumbley, to trial on involuntary manslaughter charges. It’s a low threshold under Michigan law, but this case is highly unusual because parents are rarely held criminally responsible for teens accused in mass school shootings.
The Crumbleys’ attorneys insist the couple didn’t know their son might be planning an attack and didn’t make the gun easy to find in their home.
Prosecutor Karen McDonald said she was trying to show that the couple committed gross negligence. Her first witness to her was the manager of a stable where the Crumbleys kept two horses and visited three to four times a week.
McDonald’s questions were intended to show that the parents seemed more concerned about the health of a horse that had a leg fungus than the “disturbed” mental health of their son.
Wagrowski read aloud text messages written by Ethan to his mother last March. The teen said their house was haunted and a demon was throwing bowls. Jennifer Crumbley was riding a horse and didn’t respond that day, the investigator said.
On the morning of the shooting, Jennifer and James Crumbley were summoned to the school and confronted with Ethan’s drawings, which included a handgun and the words, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” Authorities said the parents refused to take him home after the 13-minute meeting and were told to get him counseling.
Amanda Holland, who worked in the same real estate office as Jennifer Crumbley, said the teen’s mother showed her the drawing of the gun.
“She said that she felt like a failure as a parent,” Holland said. “I told her I thought it was scary that he would draw that. She agreed.”
On cross-examination, Holland noted that Jennifer Crumbley’s comments about feeling like a failure “seemed a little sarcastic.”
Jennifer Crumbley’s boss, Andrew Smith, said she shared an image of the drawings with him, too, though he didn’t immediately look at it.
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“She had said her son needed to get some counseling,” Smith testified. “I think she mentioned a family pet had passed away and a grandparent had passed away. She felt as if she was failing him, or a failure.”
By late afternoon, after the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley expressed concern about losing her job, Smith said.
“’Please don’t judge me for what my son did.’ I was surprised by that text,” Smith told the court. “I was surprised she was worried about her job at that time.”
Ethan Crumbley is charged as an adult with murder and other crimes. His lawyers filed a notice of an insanity defense, which will likely freeze his case while experts examine him.
There wasn’t much focus Tuesday on James Crumbley, although his distressed voice filled the courtroom when prosecutors played a 911 call he made after the shooting. I have reported that a gun was missing from his family’s home and that his son was an Oxford High student.
Defense attorney Shannon Smith dabbed Jennifer Crumbley’s tearful eyes with a tissue during the hearing. She could n’t do it herself because of her restraints on her wrists.
The hearing will resume with more testimony on Feb. 24.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Contact Tresa Baldas at [email protected].
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism