PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — The mother of a Michigan school shooter testified in her own defense Thursday saying she had no role in buying or storing the handgun used…
The mother of a Michigan school shooter testified in her own defense Thursday saying she had no role in buying or storing the handgun used to kill four students in 2021 and shifted responsibility to her husband.
“I just didn’t feel comfortable being in charge of that. It was his thing,” Jennifer Crumbley said of her husband, turning to jurors as she spoke on the sixth day of her trial on involuntary manslaughter charges.
Crumbley took the stand after days of unflattering evidence about her meetings with staff at Oxford High School, an extramarital affair, a deep concern about her horses after the shooting and the emptying of her son’s $3,000 bank account before her arrest.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, and husband James, 47, are accused of making a gun accessible at home and ignoring Ethan Crumbley’s mental health needs. They are the first parents in the U.S. to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child.
James Crumbley faces trial in March. Ethan, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder and is serving a life prison sentence.
The teen, who was 15 at the time, pulled a gun from his backpack and shot 11 people at Oxford High on Nov. 30, 2021, killing four students.
Ethan was with his father when the 9mm handgun was purchased just four days earlier.
