The Crumbleys Are Sentenced for Role in Oxford Shooting

They were first parents convicted in a US mass school shooting
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 9, 2024 11:59 AM CDT
The Crumbleys Are Sentenced for Role in Oxford Shooting
Jennifer Crumbley arrives for her sentencing, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Pontiac, Mich.   (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Despite their best efforts, James and Jennifer Crumbley will stay in prison. The parents of a teenager who killed four students in a 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were sentenced Tuesday in an Oakland County court to 10 to 15 years each in prison, reports the Detroit Free Press. The sentences were handed down weeks after the parents were each convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials, where prosecutors argued they'd failed to seek help for their troubled son. Both parents have now spent two years and four months in prison. Prosecutors had requested individual prison sentences of at least 10 years, arguing the parents' "gross negligence changed an entire community forever," per NBC News.

  • Before Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews read out the sentences, James and Jennifer Crumbley listened to statements from the victims' families. "Putting your child first should be the only priority," said Nicole Beausoleil, mother of victim Madisyn Baldwin. She recalled simple things she enjoyed doing for her daughter, such as scheduling an oil change for her car or helping choose senior year classes. "While you were purchasing a gun for your son and leaving it unlocked, I was helping her finish her college essays," Beausoleil told James and Jennifer Crumbley.
  • Jennifer Crumbley named each victim and apologized, saying she carried "anguish and shame" for her son's actions. But she also claimed things would've been different if school officials had told the parents of various issues involving their son. She warned other parents, "This could happen to you." She also accused the prosecution of "slander and hate" against her and her husband.

  • Defense attorneys asked for fewer than five years each. In a pre-sentencing memo, an attorney for James Crumbley suggested a sentence of 28 months, with credit for time served, meaning James would be shortly released.
  • An attorney for Jennifer Crumbley suggested a sentence of up to 57 months, or just shy of five years, per CNN. Attorney Shannon Smith made the unconventional request that Jennifer be allowed to serve her sentence under house arrest, living "on a tether" in Smith's guest house, USA Today reports.
  • Earlier in the hearing, attorneys for the Crumbleys asked the judge to lift an order forbidding them from contacting their son. "Despite even having felonies on their records, they have a constitutional right to be a family," Smith said, per CNN. The judge gave the prosecution until April 16 to respond. Defense attorneys will have until April 23 to counter the prosecution's arguments.
(More school shooting stories.)

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