With jury selection for James Crumbley's involuntary manslaughter trial set to begin on Tuesday, experts say that his day in court will likely resemble his already convicted wife's "to a significant extent."
James and Jennifer Crumbley were each charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter after their son, Ethan, killed four classmates and injured seven others at Oxford High School in a November 2021 shooting.
Michigan prosecutors' decision to charge a school shooter's parents with homicide-level crimes is unprecedented but many advocates believe this could prove to be an effective strategy for combating the country's mass shooting epidemic.
Jennifer Crumbley was found guilty on all four counts of involuntary manslaughter last month and could face up to 15 years in prison. James Crumbley's trial bears many structural similarities to his wifes - with the same judge and prosecutors - but experts do expect there to be some distinctions in the proceedings.
"This is going to resemble Jennifer Crumbley's trial to a significant extent," Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University told the Washington Post.
"A lot of the important evidence is going to be the same across the two trials, including the evidence that points to the parents' awareness that their son posed a danger."
Some observers however have argued that James could fare better than his wife because he appears to have expressed more genuine remorse than her.
"The father might be more sympathetic than the mom because he seemed more devastated about what the son had done - you could see that in some of the videotapes of the police interviews," Michigan attorney Mark Chutkow told the Washington Post.
On the other hand, James was the parent with gun expertise. During Jennifer's trial, her attorneys argued that James was responsible for securing the family's firearms, according to ABC News.
James purchased a firearm for Ethan and had taken him to shooting ranges before he attacked his classmates. Prosecutors allege that the Crumbleys made little effort to secure the firearms - leaving them in a gun safe where the passcode was 0-0-0-0.
Ethan even sent a friend a video where he was holding one of his father's guns, accompanied by a text which read, "my dad left it out so I thought 'Why not' lol," ABC News reported.
Just hours before Ethan killed his classmates, his parents were called into the school to meet with a teacher. Ethan had drawn a gun and a bullet-ridden body on a math assignment, accompanied by the words "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."
During their meeting with several school officials, the Crumbley's expressed concern but did not mention that they had purchased a firearm for Ethan. Later that day - after the shooting already occurred - James made a panicked 911 call.
"I have a missing gun at my house," he said. "I raced home just to, like, find out, and I think my son took the gun. I don't know if it's him. I don't know what's going on. I'm, like, really freaking out."
