Court orders parents of Michigan teen school shooter to face trial

The Michigan Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that the parents of a juvenile school shooter who murdered four classmates and injured six more in 2021 at his high school in the Detroit region will be tried for involuntary manslaughter.

The appeal of the parents of Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the Oxford High School shooting, was denied by the court in Lansing, Michigan. James and Jennifer Crumbley are defending themselves against four counts of involuntary manslaughter apiece.

Some view the case as a litmus test to determine whether parents can be held accountable for their children’s claimed crimes because it appears to be the first time parents of a teenage school shooter have been charged for involvement in their offspring’s alleged crimes.

Attorneys Mariell Lehman and Shannon Smith for the Crumbleys were not immediately available for comment.

The parents, according to the prosecution, should be held accountable for their egregious negligence in neglecting to safeguard the firearm. The Crumbleys have been charged with purchasing their son a gun despite knowing he was unstable and too young to possess one. The murders from two years ago were committed with a 9mm semi-automatic weapon.

The allegations had been challenged by the parents.

In a terse, one-sentence ruling, the state Supreme Court in Lansing, Michigan, ruled that the “judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court.”

The Crumbleys have already lost cases before an Oakland County Circuit Court and a trio of judges on the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The Crumbleys’ counsel have argued that prosecutors cannot show that a jury might determine that their son perpetrating a shooting in November 2021 was a reasonably foreseeable result of the Crumbleys’ alleged gross neglect, according to the Detroit News. They claimed that the gunshot was not reasonably foreseeable and that the victims’ injuries were only caused by their son’s illegal activity.

The Crumbleys are each charged in connection with the deaths of Madisyn Baldwin, 17, Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, and Justin Shilling, 17, all of whom were students at Oxford High.

Ethan Crumbley has admitted guilt to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of terrorism resulting in death.

(With agency inputs)