Jennifer and James Crumbley, who were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for failing to prevent their teenage son from killing four fellow students in the worst school shooting in Michigan’s history, will be sentenced by a judge on Tuesday.
Their separate jury trials ended in guilty verdicts in February and March, making them the first parents in the country to be convicted for the deaths caused by their child in a mass shooting.
Involuntary manslaughter charges carry a penalty in Michigan of up to 15 years in prison, and prosecutors asked in sentencing memos filed to the court last week that the Crumbleys each serve at least 10 years. Both have been in jail for more than two years while awaiting trial and asked the court for a more lenient sentence.
Prosecutors said that Ms. Crumbley, 46, was asking to be sentenced to house arrest on her defense lawyer’s property, rather than serving prison time. And Mr. Crumbley said that he had been wrongly convicted and his sentence should amount to the time he had already served in prison, adding that he felt “absolutely horrible” about what had happened.
Prosecutors revealed that Mr. Crumbley, 47, had made threatening statements from jail about Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor who made the rare decision to hold the shooter’s parents criminally responsible. Mr. Crumbley’s jail communications privileges were restricted during the trial, but the reason for that action was not revealed at the time.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Crumbley made a phone call from jail in January in which he said that he was “on a rampage,” and that Ms. McDonald “better be scared,” adding an expletive. Mariell Lehman, Mr. Crumbley’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment.
