Jury Begins Deliberations in Unique School Shooter Trial

A Michigan jury began deliberations Monday in a novel trial against a school shooter's mother who could go to prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of four students in 2021. "You must not let sympathy, bias, or prejudice influence your decision," Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews said, per the AP. Prosecutors say Jennifer Crumbley was grossly negligent when she failed to tell Oxford High School officials that the family had guns, including a 9mm handgun that was used by her son, Ethan Crumbley, at a shooting range just a few days earlier.

The school was concerned about a macabre drawing of a gun, bullet, and wounded man, accompanied by desperate phrases, on a math assignment. But Ethan was allowed to stay in school on Nov. 30, 2021, following a roughly 12-minute meeting with Jennifer and James Crumbley, who didn't take him home. The case has the potential to set a major precedent: Jennifer Crumbley, 45, and James Crumbley, 47, are the first parents in the US to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. James Crumbley faces trial in March.

(More Jennifer Crumbley stories.)