A Michigan jury reached no verdict regarding Jennifer Crumbley's criminal case after the 1st day of deliberations and will return on Tuesday for a second day of discussions.
The trial is to determine whether or not Jennifer, the mother of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, will go to prison over charges of involuntary manslaughter. It is related to the deaths of four students who were shot by her son in 2021.
Jennifer Crumbley Trial
Prosecutors have argued that the defendant had a duty under Michigan law to prevent her son from harming other people. She is facing accusations of making a gun and ammunition accessible at home and failing to get help for her son's mental health despite warnings.
Jennifer did not disclose to Oxford High School that the family had a new 9mm handgun that her son had used with her at a shooting range just a few days before the brutal attack.
Roughly four hours into the Monday deliberations, the jury sent a note to the judge asking if it could "infer anything" from prosecutors not presenting Crumbley or others to explain specifically how he got the gun from home, as per the Associated Press.
School staff on Nov. 30, 2021, were concerned about a violent drawing of a gun, bullet, and wounded man, accompanied by desperate phrases that Crumbley drew on his math assignment. However, he was allowed to stay in school following a roughly 12-minute meeting with his parents, who decided not to take him home.
The teenager later pulled out the gun from inside his backpack and shot 10 students as well as a teacher, killing four of his peers. During closing arguments on Friday in suburban Detroit, prosecutor Karen McDonald said that the shooter literally drew a picture of what he was going to do and wrote the words, "Help me."
She added that Jennifer knew that the gun in the drawing was identical to the new one that she and her husband recently bought. The prosecutor argued that they did not store it properly and had knowledge that her son was proficient with the firearm.
A Parent's Responsibility
Assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said during cross-examination that Jennifer was the last adult to have had possession of the gun used in the shooting. He added that she saw her son shoot the last practice round before the incident, according to the Independent.
The now-17-year-old shooter pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism and is serving a life sentence. Prosecutors were not required to call him as a witness to try and prove their case against his mother, Jennifer.
If convicted, Jennifer faces up to 15 years of imprisonment and her historic trial marks the first time that a parent has been tried for manslaughter in relation to a mass shooting. Experts argue that it could set a precedent for parents being held criminally responsible for their children's actions.
The defendant's attorney, Shannon Smith, made it clear earlier in the trial that she wanted to put the shooter on the witness stand. She argued that the teen's Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination no longer applied because he has already pleaded guilty and has been sentenced said the Detroit News.
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