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Prosecutors say Jennifer Crumbley texted her son Ethan around the time he was said to have perpetrated a mass shooting in Oxford High School, telling him: "Don't do it, Ethan." The implication was that the mother knew her son might commit violence with a new firearm that was missing from the family's home.
James and Jennifer Crumbley appearing at their son's video arraignment (File photo)
But that message was misinterpreted, Crumbley's lawyers say in a new court filing.
When Jennifer Crumbley texted her son "Don't do it" on the day of the deadly Oxford High School shooting, she was reaching out to tell him not to kill himself, according to a new court filing.
This detail was disclosed Wednesday in a document seeking a lower bond for Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the shooting suspect, who are facing involuntary manslaughter charges in a novel case that seeks to hold parents responsible, in part, for a school shooting.
Perhaps most notable is that defense attorneys expressed for the first time how the Crumbleys felt following the shooting, and why the attorneys believe the prosecution will not be able to prove its case, specifically, prove that the Crumbleys knew their son would shoot up his school with a gun they had bought him as an early Christmas present.
The Crumbleys were "devastated" by the Nov. 30 shooting, the filing states, adding:
"When Mrs. Crumbley texted Ethan, 'Don't do it,' ... the shootings had already happened, Mr. Crumbley had determined the gun was missing and had notified authorities, and Mrs. Crumbley was texting her son to tell him not to kill himself."
James and Jennifer Crumbley are in the Oakland County Jail on $500,000 cash bonds. (Ethan Crumbley, in the same facility, is held without bond.) The couple seeks to have theirs reduced to $100,000.
