PONTIAC, Mich. — The lawyers for school shooter Ethan Crumbley, 17, say they will encourage him not to testify if he is called as a witness at his parents' trials, one of which opened Tuesday in a Michigan courtroom.
The development came as jury selection began for his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the deadly 2021 shooting at Oxford High School. Her lawyer, Shannon Smith, previously said she planned to call Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, as a witness.
Crumbley's father, James Crumbley, will face a separate trial on the same charge later.
"Given Ethan Crumbley's ongoing appeal and the substantial overlap in the subject matter in these three cases, we will advise Ethan to invoke his right to remain silent, should he be called to testify in either pending trial," his lawyers with the State Appellate Defender's Office wrote to Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews.
However, no appeal has been filed, and his lawyers said in a statement that he is entitled to an appellate lawyer’s advice but that “beyond that, it is premature to speculate whether he will even choose to appeal.”
Jury selection in Jennifer Crumbley's trial began with the court saying it had summoned more than 300 prospective jurors for the day, but many arrived late because of inclement weather.
Before the jurors entered the courtroom, Crumbley, wearing black glasses and a navy shirt with her gray hair tied in a bun, told Matthews she agreed to waive her right to appeal if any conflict of interest arises related to her lawyer, who previously also represented her husband.
The jurors received a questionnaire centered on whether they may have had contact with someone who was at Oxford High School on the day of the shooting and whether they believe they can serve impartially. The prosecution and defense lawyers agreed to dismiss more than 10 jurors based on the questionnaires, and later brought another 50 jurors into the courtroom for questioning.
Matthews stressed to the potential jurors that the trial is not about the shooting or how people feel about guns.
"There is no one in this room that does not feel sad about the victims," she said, comparing the case to something they might relate to: "If your son threw a baseball through the neighbor’s window, on those facts alone are you responsible?"
Ethan Crumbley was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty in 2022 to murder, terrorism and other crimes in the killing of students Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17. Several others were injured. Prosecutors said he used a semi-automatic handgun that his parents had given him as an early Christmas gift when he opened fire on Nov. 30, 2021, in a school hallway in a planned attack.
Given his young age, Crumbley was subject to a special hearing last year to determine whether a sentence of life in prison without parole was appropriate. A judge also warned him that by pleading guilty, he could potentially give up his right to appeal because he was not convicted in a trial.
The charges against Jennifer Crumbley, 45, and her husband, James, 47, are a rare instance of parents being held criminally responsible in a mass shooting. If found guilty, the Crumbleys each face up to 15 years in prison and a $7,500 fine for each charge.
Last year, the father of a young man who will stand trial in the fatal shooting of seven people in a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct. The father, Robert Crimo Jr., had been charged in the case because he helped his son, Robert Crimo III, obtain his own gun permit even though he was too young at the time.
But the case against the Crumbleys is far more multifaceted, observers say, as Oakland County prosecutors will need to convince a jury that each parent played a role in the deaths and that they were the result of unlawful negligence, although neither parent intended for people to die.
Prosecutors contend the parents were made aware by school officials that their son had been caught searching for ammunition online and made a drawing that included a gun, a person who was shot and the message, "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."
Ethan Crumbley explained the drawing was done as part of a video game design, school officials said. But when his parents were called to the school, they declined to take him home. He would go on that day to commit the shooting.
In a news conference days later, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald suggested the Crumbleys had a duty to inform the school about his weapon when they were told about his drawing.
The parents are not accused of knowing about their son's plan, which he had discussed in a video he recorded the day before the shooting, but prosecutors say that the parents knew there were warning signs and that he grew up in a turbulent home that affected his mental state.
A gag order imposed by Matthews in 2022 bars both county prosecutors and the separate lawyers for the Crumbleys from speaking publicly. The school district and staff members cannot be sued in the case because of governmental immunity.
Ven Johnson, a lawyer representing Oxford families of two of the student victims and other survivors, said his clients want to see the Crumbleys held accountable.
"Those parents sat in that room with those administrators and didn't tell them about the gun, didn't tell them about all the problems this kid was having at home," Johnson said on NBC's "TODAY" show. "Didn't tell them about any of it."
Selina Guevara reported from Pontiac and Erik Ortiz from New York.
CORRECTION (Jan. 26, 2024, 10:00 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the first name of a lawyer representing the Oxford families. He is Ven Johnson, not Ben.
