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James and Jennifer Crumbley
The criminal cases involving James and Jennifer Crumbley and their teenage son Ethan, charged in the deadly Oxford High shootings, takes an interesting turn.
Robert Snell of The Detroit News reports:
Ethan Crumbley and his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are deliberately estranged, and the teen's court-appointed lawyer, Paulette Michel Loftin, does not plan to cooperate with the parents' legal team despite a long tradition of attorneys following formal and informal agreements to share information.
Loftin does not anticipate cooperating with the parents' legal team because James and Jennifer Crumbley and their son are not co-defendants, and the parents and son have different cases with different judges, the lawyer wrote in an email to The Detroit News on Sunday.
"Also the charges are vastly different," Loftin wrote. "The cases will never be heard together."
Legal experts tell the paper that the arrangement may be best if, as part of the defense, Ethan blames his shooting spree on his upbringing by his mother and father.
The Crumbleys are charged with involuntary manslaughter. Their son faces a host of charges in the fatal shootings Nov. 30 of four students and the wounding of six others and a teacher.
Ethan Crumbley is scheduled to appear via video at a 1:15 p.m. Monday probable cause hearing conducted by Judge Julie Nicholson of Rochester District Court.
