PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The mother of a Michigan school shooter testified in her own defense Thursday, denying any responsibility for the deaths of four students but also wishing her son had “killed us instead.”
“I don’t want to say I’m a victim because I don’t want to disrespect those families who are really the victims of this,” Jennifer Crumbley told the jury. “But we lost a lot.”
“You lost everything,” attorney Shannon Smith said.
“We did,” Crumbley replied at the end of an afternoon of testimony in which she denied blame for the gun used by her son, Ethan Crumbley, and denied allegations that she neglected his mental health.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, and husband James, 47, are accused of making guns available at home and neglecting their son’s mental health care. They are first parents in the US to be accused of a mass school shooting perpetrated by their child.
Ethan Crumbley pulled a gun from his backpack and shot 11 people on November 30, 2021, killing four.
The attack took place hours after school staff called his parents into a meeting to discuss a violent drawing on a maths assignment. The Crumbles refused to take him home and a shooting ensued.
“As a parent, you spend your whole life trying to protect your child from other dangers,” Jennifer Crumbley told the jury. “You would never think that you have to protect your child from hurting someone else. That’s what blew my mind.”
“I wondered if I would have done anything differently. I wouldn’t do it. I wish he had killed us instead,” she said.
Crumbley took the stand after days of unflattering evidence about her meeting at school, an extramarital affair, deep concern for the welfare of her horses after the tragedy and emptying a $3,000 bank account in her son’s name.
She said she had no role in buying or storing the gun used by her son and instead shifted the blame to her husband, who will stand trial on the same manslaughter charges in March.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable being in charge of it. That was his thing,” Jennifer Crumbley said of her husband, addressing jurors as she spoke.
Ethan was with his father when the 9mm handgun was purchased just four days earlier on Black Friday. Jennifer Crumbley took her son to a shooting range and posted photos of the trip on social media.
But she otherwise denied any role in handling or storing the gun. She said the gun was kept in a locked box with a key kept in beer.
Jennifer Crumbley spoke clearly and calmly for more than two hours, in contrast to her sobs, when video of the shooting was played in court. She apologized to the jury for the reddening of her neck and chest and hoped she wouldn’t break out in hives.
Last week, prosecutors presented Ethan Crumbley’s own text messages from the spring of 2021, in which he told his mother that “demons” were “throwing bowls” and clothes were “flying off the shelf” at home. It has been presented as evidence of hallucinations.
But Jennifer Crumbley said it was “just Ethan messing around”.
“He’s been convinced our house has been haunted since 2015,” she said, adding that her son named the ghost “Boris Johnson.”
Earlier in the day, a coroner read portions of Eaton’s diary to the jury.
“I have zero help for my mental issues and it’s causing me to shoot up… the school,” Ethan, then 15, wrote.
“My parents won’t listen to me for help or a therapist,” the boy said.
But Jennifer Crumbley said she doesn’t see any mental health issues.
“There were several times when Ethan expressed anxiety about taking tests,” she said. “Worrying what will he do after high school – college? military? But not to the level where I felt he needed to see a psychiatrist or mental health professional.
Smith, the defense lawyer, renewed his call for Ethan Crumbley to stand trial to be challenged about his diary and other evidence. But Judge Cheryl Matthews said no, noting the teenager’s lawyers had indicated he would invoke his right to remain silent.
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, is serving a life sentence that is likely to be appealed.
A meeting between school staff and the Crumbleys a few hours before the shooting is a key moment in the case.
The parents were presented with a disturbing drawing their son scribbled on an assignment. It depicted a gun and a bullet and the lines “Thoughts won’t stop. Help me. The world is dead. My life is worthless.”
Jennifer Crumbley said she “feels concerned” and thinks her son will be stopped.
A both the counselor and the school administrator said they urged the parents to get him into psychiatric care as soon as possible. They said the Crumbles, however, refused to take him home, citing the need for him to return to work.
Jennifer Crumbley suggested a different approach.
“We agreed that it might stress him more to study remotely (at home) the rest of the day,” she testified. “There was never a time when I refused to take him home if he wanted to go.”
She said she told her husband to “start calling” mental health providers after his DoorDash went live.
Ethan returned to class and began filming later that day. No one had checked his backpack for a gun.
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