KALAMAZOO, Mich. — On Tuesday, an Oakland County jury found Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter, guilty on all four charges of involuntary manslaughter.
That verdict came down after seven days of testimony and two days of deliberation.
Attorney Randall Levine, a managing partner at Levine & Levine Attorneys at Law in Kalamazoo, told FOX 17 he was "not surprised" by the jury's decision.
"The Oxford shooting was so horrific that the facts, in this particular case, I believe, gave the jury an avenue in which to convict — which they did," he said.
Jennifer's son, Ethan, who was 15 at the time, killed four students and injured seven others in the November 2021 mass shooting.
Jennifer and her husband, James, are the first parents to ever be charged in connection to a school shooting, making Jennifer the first parent convicted in such a case.
Her conviction, according to Levine, sets an interesting precedent about similar cases moving forward.
"Jennifer Crumbley didn't do an act. It's her failure to act, which is the gravamen of this offense," he said. "Not only must there be a failure to act but the jury must determine that that failure to act was the cause of the Oxford massacre. That's a leap, but the jury heard the evidence and that was their decision.”
Jennifer's sentencing is scheduled for April 9, but Levine expects there to be an appeal before that date.
"Causation is THE ISSUE likely to be addressed," he said in a follow-up email. "In other words to what extent did the actions of Ethan Crumbley supersede and break the causal link between Jennifer's failure to act and the deaths of those students?"
Meantime, James will go through his own trial starting in March.
Levine said Jennifer's conviction doesn't necessarily mean James's fate was also sealed but they did likely get a preview of the prosecution's argument.
Levine anticipates some overlap in the two cases, but each trial, of course, is different, and come March, James will start with a clean slate.
Ethan Crumbley already pleaded guilty to 24 charges against him, including first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death. He's been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
