Jury deliberations resumed Thursday in the manslaughter trial of James Crumbley, the father of the teenager who killed four students at a Michigan high school in 2021, in a case tried just a month after the shooter’s mother was convicted of the same charges.
Crumbley is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The jury deliberated for about an hour Wednesday.
Prosecutors in closing arguments Wednesday said James Crumbley was “grossly negligent” because he bought a SIG Sauer 9mm gun for his son days before the attack, failed to properly secure it, ignored his son’s deteriorating mental health and did not take “reasonable care” to prevent foreseeable danger.
“James Crumbley is not on trial for what his son did,” Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald said. “James Crumbley is on trial for what he did and what he didn’t do.”
In response, defense attorney Mariell Lehman asserted the prosecution’s case lacked evidence and was based on “assumptions and hindsight.”
“You heard no testimony and you saw no evidence that James had any knowledge that his son was a danger to anyone,” she said.
