Full updates: Day 6 of trial for mother of Oxford High School shooter (Feb. 1)

OXFORD, Mich. – The trial for Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter who killed four people, completed its sixth day Thursday, and we had live updates from the proceedings.

The prosecution called 21 witnesses to the stand over the first five and a half days of trial, and on Thursday, the defense called Crumbley to testify. She will be cross examined on Friday.

Here are some quick facts heading into the trial:

• Jennifer and James Crumbley are both facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with their son’s mass shooting. Those charges stem from the deaths of 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, and 17-year-old Justin Shilling.
• The Crumbley parents were originally going to be tried together, but they asked for separate trials in November, and a judge granted their request.
• Defense attorney Shannon Smith represents Jennifer Crumbley. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald and assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast represent the people. Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl A. Matthews is hearing the case.
• The shooter was sentenced in December to life in prison without the chance of parole.

Here are the full updates from Day 6 of the trial:

Judge leaves

• 4:39 p.m. Thursday

The judge left the courtroom and proceedings ended for the day.

Specific request

• 4:37 p.m. Thursday

Keast said he’s requesting to specifically cross examine Jennifer Crumbley about how she was in communication with Smith when she was apparently planning to turn herself in.

Keast said Smith sent a text message to police stating she couldn’t get ahold of her client. That has been barred from court due to attorney-client privilege.

“The issue is that Jennifer Crumbley testified that she did what she did because her lawyer told her to,” Keast said. “That’s the crux of it, and there’s evidence to the contrary, and I want that evidence to be admitted.”

Matthews asked if he’s referencing a text or something else.

“There’s also texts from Ms. Smith to an officer,” Keast said. “There’s no privilege there, so that’s naturally going to be part of cross examination.”

“I might be inclined to let you ask her, ‘Did you testify that you were sleeping at 11:03?’” Mathews said. “’Yes.’ ‘Isn’t it true that you texted your lawyer at--’ I may allow you to do that.”

Matthews said she’s going to get a member of her staff to figure out exactly what the statement was during Jennifer Crumbley’s testimony.

Keast says testimony waived privilege

• 4:30 p.m. Thursday

Keast said Shannon Smith and Jennifer Crumbley waived their attorney-client privilege when they used their own conversation as part of the testimony.

He’s talking about when Jennifer Crumbley testified that she was discussing turning herself in with Smith.

Keast said the prosecution should have the right to look into those messages.

Smith said she didn’t expect her client to mention her.

“I don’t believe she’s opened attorney-client privilege,” Smith said.

Keast said this is an issue of potential false testimony.

Smith said prosecutors and police tried to turn her into a witness.

Smith plans to meet with Jennifer Crumbley

• 4:28 p.m. Thursday

Smith said she plans to meet with Jennifer Crumbley after court so they can discuss which witnesses they might want to call.

She said they haven’t always agreed about this part of their strategy.

Questioning ends

• 4:26 p.m. Thursday

Smith’s questioning of Jennifer Crumbley ended, and the judge sent the jury home for the day.

The prosecution will have a chance to cross examine Jennifer Crumbley when court returns Friday morning.

Last 26 months

• 4:25 p.m. Thursday

She agreed the last 26 months have been very stressful and she’s had a range of emotions.

“Do you believe you are the victim here?” Smith asked.

She said she doesn’t want to disrespect the families who lost their children, but she said she has lost a lot.

‘Failure as a parent’

• 4:24 p.m. Thursday

Smith asked Jennifer Crumbley if she still feels like she was a failure as a parent.

“I don’t think I’m a failure as a parent,” she said. “But at the time, I guess I didn’t see -- I felt bad that (the shooter) was sad at those things, and I guess, I don’t know, I guess I just failed somewhere. I don’t really know how to describe it. I guess at that point in time I just kind of felt like somewhere I failed.”

She said she doesn’t believe there was reason for her to know her child was a danger to others.

“No, as a parent, you spend your whole life trying to protect your child from other dangers,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “You never would think you’d have to protect your child from harming somebody else. That’s what blew my mind. That was the hardest I had to stomach is that my child harmed and killed other people.”

She said she’s looked back and asked herself if she would do anything different but if she could change what happened, she would.

“Absolutely,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “I wish he would have killed us instead.”

Leaving belongings

• 4:23 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she didn’t know if she was going to jail or what was going to happen, so she left her money and items in his art studio.

That’s why her belongings were in the bags, she said.

Alarms on phone

• 4:22 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley had set alarms for 6:30 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. She said those alarms were set so they could get up and drive to Novi for their arraignment.

Waking up to guns

• 4:21 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she is prescribed Xanax for anxiety, and she and her husband each took four of them because they were going to turn themselves in the next day.

She said they were sleeping when they suddenly woke up to police with guns in their faces. She said she didn’t hear anything going on in the building.

Night of Dec. 3

• 4:18 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley was on an app looking for last-minute hotel deals. She looked up rates to return to the Auburn Hills extended stays.

“I was not aware that we could go into court (Dec. 3) afternoon,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “I was just awaiting direction from you on what we were going to do the following day, turning ourselves in.”

Jennifer Crumbley said they found the mattress in the hallway, so they pulled it into the art studio.

Her friend went to the store and bought the items that were later found in the room. She said they didn’t feel safe going themselves.

Plans to turn themselves in

• 4:17 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she was in touch with her attorney, Smith, and making plans to turn herself in on Saturday morning.

She said that’s when the Novi court was doing arraignments, so that’s when they were going to turn themselves in.

Finding out about charges

• 4:16 p.m. Thursday

Her friend showed her where to park where she wasn’t blocking the dumpster or taking anyone else’s parking spot.

Jennifer Crumbley said he left the building for a business meeting and returned after charges were announced. At that point, she found out she was being charged.

She said she was freaked out because she had never been charged with anything like this in her life.

Art studio

• 4:15 p.m. Thursday

Smith asked Jennnifer Crumbley to explain how she got from the extended stay hotel to the art studio in Detroit.

She said they went to Owosso to get cellphones because they couldn’t get into their accounts. The two-factor authentication was sending alerts to the phones they didn’t have, so they couldn’t get into accounts.

The bought regular cellphones with their old numbers in Owosso. They said they didn’t feel safe to go to a local store.

Her friend who owns the art studio called and asked to stop by the hotel the night of Dec. 2. He came and invited them to the art studio so they could be around a friend.

“He’s just a really nice guy that was offering a friendship during a time when we didn’t know what was going on,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

She drove her car to the art studio and they left her husband’s car at the extended stay hotel. At that point, they had heard charges might be announced that day, but they didn’t know yet.

Next 2 days

• 4:11 p.m. Thursday

The next day, the Crumbleys went to the extended stay in Auburn Hills because it had cheap rates. She said they were there for two days.

She said she didn’t know if charges would be announced against the parents. She said it didn’t set in that it was going to happen until the charges were actually handed down on Dec. 3.

Not returning home

• 4:10 p.m. Thursday

The day after the shooting, Dec. 1, 2021, Jennifer Crumbley said her neighbor told her there was media outside her house and people were having random pizza deliveries sent to their house.

She said her dad has been involved in civil suits, and he told her that lawsuits were going to start and that their bank accounts could be frozen. She said she went and withdrew their money in order to protect it.

The bank account with her son’s name on it was used as a family savings account, Jennifer Crumbley said.

Threats

• 4:08 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said people found her Realtor.com profile and sent her threats, and their Facebook messages were “blowing up” with threats.

She could see the messages on the burner phone because she logged into Facebook, she said.

Leaving house

• 4:07 p.m. Thursday

While the search warrant was going on, police told the Crumbleys to leave the house, she testified.

Jennifer Crumbley said her and her husband went to the Holiday Inn Express to wait for police to call them. They told them the search was over.

Then the detective asked for their cellphones. Jennifer Crumbley said she was reluctant to turn over her cellphone because everything she needed was in there.

“I have an emergency going on and they’re taking my only means of contact away from me,” she said.

Deleting messages

• 4:05 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said her phone often gets clogged up with messages from Facebook messages or texts. She said she would often delete entire threads so the main people she talks to are at the top.

She said that was her practice long before the school shooting.

Jennifer Crumbley said it’s not surprising that there was a lot of deleted content on her phone because that was her process.

McDonald saying ‘object’

• 4:03 p.m. Thursday

Smith called out McDonald during her questioning, saying everyone can hear her saying, “Object.” McDonald claims she wasn’t saying that.

The judge asked her to keep her voice down.

Finding out about student deaths

• 4:03 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she was in the back of the police car when she found out four students had been killed in the shooting.

Search warrant at home

• 4:01 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said they went back home from the police substation and they put some hot water on the stove. Her husband went for a walk outside, and after awhile, she went out to check on him and she saw police with guns drawn.

She said she remembers dropping her phone and putting her hands up.

She was placed in handcuffs and walked to the back of the police car.

Jennifer Crumbley said she was messaging her dad and other family members in the back of the police car. She was telling family members that her son was OK but he was the shooter.

“I was pretty numb,” she said. “I didn’t really believe everything was happening the way it was. It was surreal. My mind was in all different places.”

Learning people had been shot

• 3:59 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she learned at the substation that there were injuries, and she went into “go mode.” She didn’t think there would be fatalities and said, “We can handle injuries and figure this out and go from there.”

Going to police substation

• 3:58 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley got a call from her husband that he had called 911 and their son was in custody. Police wanted the parents to go to the substation.

She picked up her husband and went to the substation.

She said she was kind of in a haze. It was surreal.

“I still didn’t believe that he actually shot anybody or was in the school,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

Jennifer Crumbley said she was on her phone at the police substation to show the officer the math worksheet. Then she believes she was going through the “massive amount of messages” she had received asking if her son was OK.

She was also asking her boss to get his advice because he was an attorney, she said.

‘Don’t do it’

• 3:55 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley sent her son a text that said, “Don’t do it” after she found out there was a shooting.

She said that’s when she opened her phone and saw the “I love you” text from the shooter. She asked him if he was OK.

While she was driving, her husband called and asked where she had hid the bullets, and when she told him, he said the gun was gone.

Jennifer Crumbley said she then believed he had walked home and picked up the gun. She thought he was going to fire shots at the school and then kill himself, so she texted him, “Don’t do it,” she testified.

She said she didn’t think he had shot anyone at that point.

Finding out about shooting

• 3:54 p.m. Thursday

Smith asked Jennifer Crumbley about when he found out there was a shooting at Oxford High School.

She said she was part of the caravan that sped to the high school. She got on I-75 and traffic was backed up about a quarter of a mile.

Before the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley said she sent her son a text that said, “You can talk to us.” When he said, “I love you,” she said that was abnormal because he was at an age where it was hard to get him to say that.

Jennifer Crumbley returns to stand

• 3:53 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley returned to the courtroom with deputies and took the witness stand.

The jury returned and court is back in session.

Court has been in break for over an hour

• 3:52 p.m. Thursday

The court’s break began at 2:51 p.m., and the judge has not returned to the courtroom after more than an hour.

Prosecutors return

• 3:46 p.m. Thursday

Keast and McDonald returned to the courtroom.

Smith back in courtroom

• 3:33 p.m. Thursday

Shannon Smith is back in the courtroom. Prosecutors and the judge have not yet returned.

Jennifer Crumbley on stand so far

• 3:19 p.m. Thursday

Smith’s strategy so far has been to humanize Jennifer Crumbley by showing Facebook posts of family holidays and vacations.

She also had her client give her version of an explanation for the text messages from the shooter where he claims to see demons in the house. She said it was a running joke within their family that the house was haunted, and that her son was just kidding in those messages.

Court remains in break

• 3:06 p.m. Thursday

The court remains in a break after 15 minutes. Jennifer Crumbley is in the middle of giving testimony. She was on the stand being questioned by defense attorney Shannon Smith when the judge asked for a break.

Court takes break

• 2:51 p.m. Thursday

The judge interjected and asked if the court could take a break. Smith agreed.

Counseling papers

• 2:50 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley gave the counseling papers to her husband to start making calls when he was done with work because she had calls the rest of the day at work, she testified.

Jennifer Crumbley said she doesn’t remember searching for depression on the internet, and she doesn’t usually use Yahoo for searching.

She said she might have looked up something for her husband when his mother died.

Meeting at school

• 2:46 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley thought her son was going to get suspended for what he had drawn on the assignment.

“I felt concerned after seeing that,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

She said Hopkins met them and walked them back to his counseling office. The shooter was sitting in a chair in front of the desk working on something on his laptop.

She said they shook hands, did introductions, and then started working. She said she didn’t try to hug her son.

“It was pretty nonchalant,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “It was pretty brief.”

Hopkins filled her in that her son had expressed sadness about the death of his grandmother and a dog, and his friend moving away, Jennifer Crumbley testified.

He told them that he didn’t feel the shooter was a risk and gave them the option to stay at school. Jennifer Crumbley said they all discussed that. She didn’t feel she was taking the position of forcing her son to stay in school.

“I thought the advice they were giving us was good advice,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “He said being around peers usually helps, so we all agreed to that.”

She said she thought it might stress her son out more to work remotely.

She said she would never refuse to take her son home from school.

Argument before math worksheet

• 2:45 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she remembers the voicemail from Hopkins, the school counselor, about the math worksheet the shooter had drawn on. She said she also received a picture of the math worksheet with the scribbled out drawings.

The night before, Jennifer Crumbley and her son had gotten into an argument because he had an “E” in geometry. They took his phone away and said he couldn’t go to the shooting range until his grades improved.

She remembered talking to her son on speaker phone about why he did that. She thought he had done the drawings in defiance because they had just yelled at him about assignments the night before.

Hopkins sent Jennifer Crumbley the original worksheet. She said she was “pretty concerned.”

She tried to get her husband to go to the school because he was working in the area, so she decided to go to the school. On her way there, he called back so they both went together.

Brian Meloche testimony

• 2:42 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she probably mentioned to Meloche during the mother-son day at the range that she had put the gun in her car. She said the gun was never in her car the day of the shooting.

She said when Meloche testified that he had told Jennifer Crumbley it was bad that the gun was in her car the day of the shooting, he was confused.

Meloche testified first that he had never met the shooter, and then later said he did. He also testified that he has memory problems.

Jennifer Crumbley said Meloche met her son “a couple of times at the barn.” She said he also went to their house to deliver a TV while her son was there.

She said she never told Meloche anything about mental health problems with her son.

Friend moves away

• 2:40 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said the day before Halloween, she found out her son’s friend had gone to Wisconsin to go to a treatment school.

She asked if the friend was coming over to carve pumpkins, and they didn’t hear back. Her husband found out the friend’s dad had driven him to a treatment center in Wisconsin for at least 90 days. She said it hit them very hard.

Jennifer Crumbley said that month was difficult. They did more family game nights than normal. She said her son was working more. She asked if there were any other friends at school he could invite over.

She said her son was sad, but she didn’t feel like he needed mental health treatment, counseling, or a therapist.

Shooter’s mood

• 2:38 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley thought the shooter was quieter than normal because he had lost his grandmother and because they had been out of town so he hadn’t seen his friend as much.

She said it didn’t last.

Texts with friend’s mom

• 2:36 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley was showed the text message exchange that was previously brought up between her and the shooter’s friend’s mother.

The messages were from April 29, 2021. Jennifer Crumbley talked about her son “acting kind of depressed.” They talked about their sons being moody and stressed out since they had some kind of fight or argument. She said the two weren’t talking as much recently.

Jennifer Crumbley said she had been gone for a couple of weeks to make funeral arrangements for her mother-in-law.

She said she didn’t think her son needed to see a psychologist. She said he was being quieter than usual but when she would ask him if he’s OK, he would say he was fine.

April 4, 2021, messages

• 2:31 p.m. Thursday

More text messages were brought up from April 4, 2021, between the shooter and his friend.

Jennifer Crumbley said she had never seen these messages before the trial. She wasn’t aware that they existed.

Her son texted his friend that he was hearing voices and he asked to go to the doctor, but his mother laughed at him about it.

Jennifer Crumbley said there was never a time when her son asked for help and he laughed at her.

The shooter later said that he wanted to call 911 to go to the hospital, but then his parents would be angry. He talked about hearing voices and feeling depressed.

Jennifer Crumbley said she was never made aware of any of these issues. She said she never told her son he couldn’t go to the doctor.

She said the shooter got the Ouija board for Christmas of 2020, and her son and his friend were really into playing with it for a few months.

March 20, 2021, text messages

• 2:29 p.m. Thursday

On March 20, 2021, Jennifer Crumbley was at the barn.

Her son said he had finished picking up the room and clothes started flying off the shelves. He said that kind of stuff only happens when he’s home alone.

She never answered, finally replying two days later about jumping in the shower.

Jennifer Crumbley testified that she didn’t remember that conversation until the trial because the texts weren’t notable.

“I just think he was messing with us,” Jennifer Crumbley said. She testified that even now, she doesn’t consider those messages alarming.

Smith clarified that there were three times when their son sent those types of messages while they were at the barn, and Jennifer Crumbley said yes. She said her son was kidding around.

More text messages

• 2:25 p.m. Thursday

“Where are you?” Jennifer Crumbley sent her son at the start of another conversation.

Her son said someone had flushed the toilet and slammed the door. He asked when they were going to be home and said it might just be his paranoia.

Jennifer Crumbley said she was driving home and not looking at her phone. She probably just didn’t look at her phone, she testified.

She also said her cell service isn’t always reliable at the horse barn.

“He was just messing with us,” Jennifer Crumbley said. She said she wasn’t worried that he was having any mental issues.

Texts in March 2021

• 2:23 p.m. Thursday

Prosecutors had showed the jury texts from March 8 and 9, 2021. Jennifer Crumbley asked her husband if the shooter was going to bowling and her husband said he didn’t know.

She asked her husband if the shooter had returned home from school. She believes the shooter had lost his phone for the day because of his grades.

“I told you to pick him up because he’s upset and I don’t want him to do anything stupid g------,” Jennifer Crumbley had sent.

She said she didn’t want him to wander around and not come home because of the argument the night before. She said she wasn’t worried about him harming himself or anything like that.

She said he eventually got home and the issue was resolved.

Trips to horse barn

• 2:22 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said whoever felt like going to the barn or had the most availability would typically go out to the barn to spend time with the horses.

“It was just a day-by-day thing,” she said.

Jennifer Crumbley says shooter was joking around

• 2:21 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley agreed it was “typical joking around kind of stuff.”

She said she doesn’t look back at the texts and think he was having mental issues. She said he was bored and joking around.

Joking about house ghost

• 2:16 p.m. Thursday

On March 17, 2021, incident, when Jennifer Crumbley said she was “going to get drunk and ride her horse,” she said it was St. Patrick’s Day, and she wanted to have a couple of drinks and go for a trail ride on her horse.

During a text thread with Jennifer Crumbley and the shooter, he told her, “The house is now haunted. Some weird s--- just happened so now I’m scared.” He said there were demons throwing bowls and asked her to at least text back.

“It didn’t stick out to me until this whole -- I don’t recall it exactly,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “I just remember it since we got discovery on this case.”

She said she probably didn’t see those texts at that time.

“I’m sure I saw them, but they didn’t stick out to me,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “It wasn’t anything series. It was just (the shooter) messing around. He’s been convinced our house is haunted since 2015.”

She said the shooter and his friend would go to the basement with an Ouija board. She said it was an ongoing joke from the shooter about the house being haunted.

She said she would “mess around” with him, such as flipping the circuit breaker off in the house when they were playing with the Ouija board. Her husband would do it, too, naming the ghost Victoria.

“Our house ghost, we called it,” she said. “My son called it Horace. My husband called it Victoria.”

Nov. 10, 2021, incident

• 2:14 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she was never alerted about the email exchange on Nov. 10, 2021, about her son having a rough time.

“I would have talked to my son to find out what was going on,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

Sept. 8, 2021, incident

• 2:13 p.m. Thursday

Hopkins got another email in September that the shooter had written in a paper that his family was a “mistake.”

Jennifer Crumbley said she was never made aware of this happening.

“I’d be definitely concerned why he feels like his family is a mistake and he feels terrible,” she said. “That would be a concern to me.”

She found out these emails existed when they were presented during her case, she said.

May 13, 2021, incident

• 2:12 p.m. Thursday

Smith brought up the email from the teacher who told Hopkins she was worried about the shooter failing a class and falling asleep.

Jennifer Crumbley said there was never a time when she was aware that her son was “sleeping in class.” She said nobody from the school ever brought that to her attention.

‘Don’t get caught’

• 2:10 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said when she texted her son “don’t get caught” it was in reference to an ongoing topic they often talked about in their house because she was a “troublemaker” in high school.

She didn’t feel the shooter needed further discipline because of that incident.

Searching bullets at school

• 2:09 p.m. Thursday

The next day, Jennifer Crumbley said she got a call about her son looking up bullets in class.

She said the counselor told her they had given the shooter an example that teachers who like beer shouldn’t be looking up beer at home.

The message was “upbeat,” Jennifer Crumbley said. They told her they hoped she had had a good holiday.

She said she didn’t call back because she didn’t have any further questions about what happened.

Trip to shooting range with shooter

• 2:08 p.m. Thursday

After they went to the range, she put the gun where the spare tire goes in the car. Jennifer Crumbley said she took the bullets in the house and hid them. She said her husband took the gun out of the car when he got him.

She didn’t feel comfortable bringing it in.

It was left in the locked car for a couple of hours. She said she knew the gun had been brought back inside later because her husband told her. She didn’t watch him put the gun away.

Trip to shooting range with shooter

• 2:03 p.m. Thursday

On Nov. 28, 2021, Jennifer Crumbley went to the shooting range with the shooter. She said her husband had gotten the gun out, put the magazines in, and put it in her car. That’s how it got to the shooting range.

She said he took the cable lock off, but she didn’t watch him do it because she was doing something else around the house.

Jennifer Crumbley and her son went to the counter, bought bullets, and then went to fire shots.

“I shot it a couple times,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “I more like sheet shooting, where something’s going on. I shot a couple of times and let him do the rest.”

She said it was a fun day because her son had asked her to go to the shooting range with him. She had only gone once before and it felt good that he had asked her to go with him, she testified.

How guns were kept in house

• 2:03 p.m. Thursday

She said the other two guns the family owned were kept in a separate gun safe.

A key was needed to get the cable lock open, Jennifer Crumbley said. The key was in one of the beer stein that were displayed in the house.

She said she didn’t know which particular beer stein the key was in, and she doesn’t know whether the shooter knew which one it was in.

No 9 mm ammunition was purchased on the day the gun was bought, she said.

Jennifer Crumbley said he did not have free access to the gun.

“It was for him to use at the shooting range only,” she said.

Her husband hid the gun in their bedroom in different spots, Jennifer Crumbley said. It would have the cable lock on it, and the key was in a beer stein displayed in the kitchen.

Jennifer Crumbley said she didn’t know where the gun was hidden on Nov. 26, 2021.

Gun safety

• 2:02 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said before they went to the Christmas tree farm, her husband put the cable lock on and put it in the case.

She said her husband was responsible for storing the guns because she doesn’t know that much about guns.

“I just didn’t feel comfortable being in charge of that,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “It was more his thing, so I let him handle that. I didn’t feel comfortable putting the lock thing on it. I’d just rather not, and let him do it.”

Jennifer Crumbley said she would never take the cable lock on or off the gun.

Gun purchase

• 2 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she always goes Black Friday shopping. She woke up at 4 a.m. on Black Friday of 2021 and went to Meijer and Menards. That was Nov. 26, 2021 -- four days before the shooting.

Her son and husband were sleeping when she left, she said. They weren’t home when she got back, so she asked James Crumbley where he had gone. He told her they were at the gun store looking at guns. Then they came home.

That day, her husband bought the gun, Jennifer Crumbley said. She posted a photo of the gun on Facebook, describing it as her son’s Christmas gift.

She said they had rented a 9 mm at the shooting range before and they knew it was the size they wanted to buy. She said the shooter did a lot of research before buying that gun.

Her husband kept blowing it off, but when she went shopping, they decided to go out and buy one.

She didn’t object to them buying the gun, but she said she was irritated they cut into her Christmas tree cutting time.

Night of Thanksgiving

• 1:58 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said her aunt and uncle, her cousin and her cousin’s husband who went to the Crumbleys’ house the night of Thanksgiving.

She said they stayed until about 7 or 8 p.m. and played Left, Right, Center.

She said nothing felt “off or strange” about her son. She said he would play games with them and go back and forth between his room when they talked about things that didn’t interest him.

Holiday photos

• 1:55 p.m. Thursday

On Nov. 25, 2021, two photos showed Thanksgiving Day. Another post showed the whole family, including the shooter and his parents playing Left, Right, Center.

On Nov. 26, 2021, photos showed the family going to cut down a Christmas tree. Another picture showed the shooter and James Crumbley laughing at her for making them go all around the tree farm to pick a tree, she said.

On Nov. 27, 2021, photos showed the family’s home decorated for Christmas.

Sarcasm

• 1:54 p.m. Thursday

On Oct. 25, 2021, Jennifer Crumbley posted a screenshot of a text from her son. She said, “You guys OK?” and he replied, “No we’re in the back of a white van headed to Alabama.”

She said he would often be sarcastic.

“He was always sarcastic, always messing around with us,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

Photos continue

• 1:52 p.m. Thursday

On May 29, 2021, another photo showed her son with Dexter.

On May 31, 2021, there were photos of the shooter with his kitten.

On June 13, 2021, a photo showed a family trip to Cedar Point.

On June 26, 2021, a photo showed the garden.

On June 27, 2021, two photos showed Jennifer Crumbley in the pool with the shooter.

On July 4, 2021, two photos showed the shooter and his friend playing badminten against her parents.

On July 11, 2021, photos showed the shooter and his friend exploring an area around a trail.

On July 30, 2021, a post showed the shooter and his friend sleeping after a hike, and another showed pictures of a campground they were visiting.

On July 31, 2021, a series of photos showed the shooter with his friend at the Sleeping Bear Dunes. There were more than 30 photos in the post.

On Aug. 21, 2021, photos showed the shooter and his friend putting up a tent in the backyard for camping.

On Aug. 21, 2021, another post showed a memory from three years prior, when the shooter had been with their horse, and Jennifer Crumbley was pointing out how small they two looked.

On Aug. 25, 2021, a post showed the shooter on his first day of 10th grade.

On Aug. 29, 2021, a picture of Jennifer Crumbley and her son was taken to tag his old football coach.

On Sept. 6, 2021, a picture showed the shooter leash training his kitten.

On Sept. 18, 2021, two pictures showed a house boat they had rented for the weekend. Jennifer Crumbley said she was sneaking pictures of the boys because they wouldn’t let her take pictures.

On Sept. 18, 2021, another series of pictures showed the shooter and his friend on the house boat.

On Sept. 21, 2021, a photo showed the shooter sleeping with Dexter.

On Sept. 26, 2021, photos showed work on the porch and front yard area.

On Oct. 3, 2021, photos showed the family’s house decorated for Halloween.

On Oct. 6, 2021, photos showed a porch makeover.

On Oct. 15, 2021, photos showed a paint job and remodeling of the living and dining room.

On Oct. 29, 2021, a photo showed the family playing with the virtual reality set.

More photos

• 1:44 p.m. Thursday

A photo from Oct. 11, 2019, showed after the shooter got his braces put on.

A photo from Oct. 13, 2019, showed the family out hiking.

A photo from Nov. 7, 2019, showed the shooter on his ninth-grade Washington, D.C. trip with his school.

A photo from May 23, 2020, showed the family in Northern Michigan for a camping vacation. The shooter “didn’t look thrilled to be in the picture,” Smith said.

The next photo showed her son with his friend.

On Aug. 5, 2020, a photo showed the house when they first bought it compared to with improvements.

Another photo showed the shooter on the beach in Northern Michigan, walking with his friend.

On Sept. 28, 2020, there was a picture of the shooter and the family’s horse.

A photo from Oct. 23, 2020, showed a picture of a skeleton her son had drawn on a piece of notebook paper.

On Oct. 30, 2020, a photo showed the shooter and his friend carving pumpkins.

A photo on Nov. 21, 2020, showed the shooter playing “Dark Tower” with his family during a trip. Jennifer Crumbley listed a number of games they would play.

“We played a lot of games,” she said.

On Nov. 24, 2020, a photo showed her husband and her son.

On Jan. 22, 2021, a photo showed the shooter and his friend playing Jenga.

On Feb. 25, 2021, a photo showed the shooter at a bowling match.

On Feb. 26, 2021, a photo showed her son with his arm around Jennifer Crumbley’s stepdaughter.

On May 15, 2021, a post showed pictures of backyard improvements.

On May 16, 2021, a photo showed the family’s garden.

On May 29, 2021, a photo showed the shooter with his kitten, Dexter.

Note: When the shooter saw his parents at the substation after the shooting, he had asked them to take care of Dexter for him.

Photos presented by defense

• 1:41 p.m. Thursday

The first photo showed the shooter with his pet chinchilla.

The second showed the shooter petting a horse.

The next showed the shooter’s first day of eighth grade.

Smith said these aren’t all the photos from Jennifer Crumbley’s Facebook page. She agreed.

Keast: no objection to photos

• 1:39 p.m. Thursday

Keast abruptly said he has no objection to all of the photos.

“It’s fine,” Keast after the Facebook photos were showed.

Pictures of horses

• 1:38 p.m. Thursday

Smith said over the past couple of years, it was hard getting a picture of her son because he didn’t like having his picture taken, so the concentration of pictures of horses rose.

The prosecution had previously showed extensive testimony about the parents discussing horses.

Facebook photos

• 1:32 p.m. Thursday

A 14-page exhibit showed pictures Jennifer Crumbley has posted on Facebook. She said they appear to have been from 2020-2021.

Jennifer Crumbley agreed she posts on Facebook “way too much,” as Smith put it.

Smith said the variety of pictures would give the jury an idea of the topics she would generally post about on Facebook.

The judge agreed that showing pictures back to 2020 is appropriate. She allowed the photos to be showed to the jury.

Smith said the photos show Christmas of 2020, family vacations, several camping trips, holidays, horses, gardening, at-home work, cooking, and a bathroom remodel.

Photos presented by defense

• 1:30 p.m. Thursday

Smith approached the judge to hand her several exhibits. Some haven’t been admitted, and Keast objected to the photos that are “years” before the shooting.

The judge said they’ll have to go exhibit by exhibit to see if the pictures can be admitted. The prosecution will likely have several objections.

Health treatment

• 1:26 p.m. Thursday

Smith asked in-depth questions about the health care the shooter had access to while he lived with his parents.

Jennifer Crumbley said the shooter was taken to the doctor if he was sick or had persistent issues.

During COVID, she would “freak out” about possible issues and they would take him to the doctor, she said.

Her son had health insurance through her husband until October 2021, when her husband lost his job, she said. She was going to add him to her health insurance before the shooting happened.

Her company offered a plan that allowed her son to have free virtual visits if he had problems, she said. He would go to urgent care sometimes for sports physicals or if he had a problem and he couldn’t get into his doctor quickly.

Once, he had a discolored mole when he was 7 years old, and she took him in to get it checked out, Jennifer Crumbley said.

He would get really bad headaches, starting when he was about 5 years old. Around 8 or 9 years old, they got him glasses. They got X-rays and found out a severe underbite was causing the headaches. They got him braces and that fixed his problems, Jennifer Crumbley said.

The shooter wasn’t brushing properly under his braces, and one time he had to get 13 cavities, Jennifer Crumbley said.

Future plans

• 1:25 p.m. Thursday

She said the shooter considered joining the military or getting into video game design.

He wanted to own a car shop where mechanics worked, she said.

Mental health questions

• 1:24 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she never believed that her son needed mental health treatment. She said he had some anxiety about life after shoot or before a big test. She said it never rose to the level where she believed he needed to go to a psychiatrist.

He never asked her to go see a mental health professional, Jennifer Crumbley testified.

Her husband called a school counselor once because their son was stressed out about his grades and future goals.

Discipline for shooter

• 1:22 p.m. Thursday

She said she did not have a reason to go through her son’s messages. She said she would clean his bedroom when it needed to be cleaned.

Jennifer Crumbley said there were a couple of times when she would discipline her son, usually because of grades or missing assignments.

There was a time when she took away her son’s phone, and he got really angry.

“We took it away a couple times,” she said. “We took his video games away (because of) missing assignments and his grades.”

Relationship with shooter

• 1:21 p.m. Thursday

The shooter worked part-time at a diner and also had bowling, so there were scheduling issues Jennifer Crumbley and her husband had to discuss.

“I thought we were pretty close,” Jennifer Crumbley said of her son. “We would talk. We did a lot of things together. I trusted him and I felt like I had an open door that he could come to me about anything.”

Talking about horses

• 1:20 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said her horses were accident-prone, and her husband didn’t know a lot about horses. Since he was working from home, she had to message him directions pretty often about how to handle the issues.

Smith asked how often she and her husband would talk about or to their son. Jennifer Crumbley said they talked to him and about him every day.

Location app

• 1:19 p.m. Thursday

The family used a location app to keep track of each other when James Crumbley started going to Florida often to care for his mother.

Jennifer Crumbley said before getting that app she would constantly be asking her husband and the shooter where they were.

The friend who moved away

• 1:18 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley spoke about her son’s friend who had moved away earlier in the year. She said he was the only friend who would come over. They would go fishing or walk to get pizza and ice cream. They bowled, swam in the pool, played video games, and shot BB guns, she said.

“I called him my second son,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

She said she didn’t realize the friend had moved away so abruptly.

“My son has never been to his house, because his friend had OCD issues and he didn’t want other people in the house,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

There were no issues with the friend at her house, Jennifer Crumbley said.

Messy house pictures

• 1:16 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she felt “horrible” about seeing pictures of her house because it was messy and embarrassing.

She clarified why the shooter had two bedrooms. She said her intention was to clean his first room after it got out of hand, but she got busy doing other things. They had just hosted Thanksgiving at their home.

She planned to donate many of the things piled up in his rooms before he got new stuff for Christmas.

Interactions with assistant principal

• 1:14 p.m. Thursday

Smith referenced the testimony of Kristy Gibson-Marshall, the assistant principal, and how Gibson-Marshall said she recognized the shooter at the time of the shooting.

Jennifer Crumbley said she had exchanged emails with Gibson-Marshall, but that was never about discipline issues.

“He’d be struggling in geometry, so me and the teacher would message quite a bit,” she said. “Then he’d start doing better and it would die off a little bit.”

Affair with Brian Meloche

• 1:13 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she’s known Brian Meloche since high school. He likes horses and was a close friend.

“That’s probably the extent of -- we were good friends, too,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

She said she would meet Meloche about once per week. It lasted about six months and began in the spring of 2021.

She said her time with Meloche didn’t take away from her relationship with her son. She would meet him in the Costco parking lot while he was on his way home to the station, and then they would go about their way.

Jennifer Crumbley said she didn’t tell her son or husband about the affair.

There were two or three times when Jennifer Crumbley went on business trips and he met her.

Jennifer Crumbley’s job

• 1:12 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she liked her job. She started as a social media coordinator until she was promoted to director of marketing in 2020.

That was her position until she was terminated.

She worked remotely during COVID and returned to the office in August 2020.

Shooter’s schoolwork

• 1:11 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said her son liked history.

“That was probably his only favorite subject,” she said. “The rest he could probably do without.”

He had average grades, and she thought he could do better than he was doing.

She said she was on the Power School app multiple times per day to check her son’s grades. The biggest struggle was missing assisgnments.

“There’s no reason he should have been missing assignments,” she said. “He had a homeroom class to get assignments done in.”

House

• 1:09 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said her house was an auction house and she enjoyed working on improving it since they got it in 2015.

Home life

• 1:08 p.m. Thursday

The family played board games together and played with a virtual reality set for the PlayStation 4.

They also swam in the pool.

Every year for Thanksgiving, Jennifer Crumbley said she would cook, then they would cut the Christmas tree down the next day.

On Halloween, they carved pumpkins and put them all around the house.

On Easter, it was normal family stuff, she said.

Hobbies

• 1:07 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley likes horses, skiing in the snow, and reading.

She and the shooter skied together.

Her son went to the barn with him sometimes, but he didn’t really like it. She said one of the horses intimidated him and so he mostly just had to stand around.

Details about shooter

• 1:06 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said her son like bowling and searching for items with a metal detector on the beach or in a yard.

He liked BB guns and target practice in the backyard. He also liked video games and collecting coins.

She said he played soccer from age until ninth grade.

Relationship with husband

• 1:05 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley said she met her husband in October 2004, and they’ve been married for 18 years, as of this September.

They are still married, but she hasn’t spoken to him for a little over two years -- since the day she was arrested.

Jennifer Crumbley background

• 1:02 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley was a marking director at a real estate acquisition company for five years.

“Public speaking is probably my biggest fear,” she said. “So (I’m) very nervous.”

She was asked to tell the jury about her personality, specifically when she faces a very stressful or sad situation.

“I go into a go planning mode,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “I internalize things and my reaction is to take care of other things that need to be taken care of.”

She said James Crumbley had a hard time finding a job after his mother died. She would take control and send him job postings.

Jury returns

• 12:59 p.m. Thursday

The jury returned to the room and Jennifer Crumbley was sworn in again by the judge.

Witness: Jennifer Crumbley

• 12:57 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley took the stand without the jury present because police have to stand next to her.

Smith said she and Jennifer Crumbley have been working together since December 2021. She testified that she understands she has the right not to testify and it won’t be used against her.

She said she understands the prosecution will then be able to question her about everything that’s been covered in the case.

Witnesses called by prosecution

• 12:56 p.m. Thursday

Here is a full list of the witnesses called by the prosecution.

Thursday:

• Molly Darnell, an Oxford High School staff member at the time of the shooting.
• Kristy Gibson-Marshall, the assistant principal at Oxford High School.
• Cammy Back, who works at the gun store where the Crumbleys bought the gun used in the shooting.
• ATF Special Agent Brett Brandon.

Friday:

• Edward Wągrowski, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office computer crimes unit.

Monday:

• Kira Pennock, the owner of the horse farm where the Crumbleys kept their horses.
• Shawn Hopkins, a Oxford High School counselor at the time of the shooting.
• Sgt. Joe Brian, a detective sergeant with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Tuesday:

• Nicholas Ejak, the dean of students for Oxford High School at the time of the shooting.
• Andrew Smith, Jennifer Crumbley’s boss at the time of the shooting.
• Amanda Holland, a coworker of Jennifer Crumbley’s at the time of the shooting.
• Detective Adam Stoyek, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
• Sgt. Matthew Peschke, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
• Robert Koteles, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office’s forensic lab. He is a crime scene supervisor.

Wednesday:

• Lt. Sam Marzban, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
• David Hendrick, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, who was in charge of finding the Crumbleys after the shooting.
• Luke Kirtley, the person who reported that the Crumbleys’ car was at a building in Detroit, where they were eventually arrested.
• David Shaw, a corporal for DPD and the first person into room where the Crumbleys were arrested.
• Brian Meloche, Jennifer Crumbley’s high school friend, and the man with whom she has an extramarital affair.
• William Creer, a forensic technician for Detroit police.

Thursday:

• Lt. Timothy Willis, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Prosecution rests

• 12:48 p.m. Thursday

Keast said the prosecution are going to rest. Over the five and a half days, 21 witnesses were called by the prosecution.

Redirect: Lt. Timothy Willis

• 12:47 p.m. Thursday

Keast asked Willis one quick question during redirect.

The hotel in Auburn Hills where the Crumbleys stayed was right across the street from the Auburn Hills Police Department, Willis said.

Court proceedings after shooting

• 12:45 p.m. Thursday

Willis said he didn’t tell Jennifer Crumbley she had to be had to be present for the shooter’s swear-to on Dec. 1. He doesn’t remember if there were attorneys present, but he remembers media and other people.

After the arrest warrant for the parents was issued, Willis said he is aware that there was a search.

Jennifer Crumbley was told to turn herself in by 4 p.m. Dec. 3, according to Willis. Smith said defendants can turn themselves in, have a lawyer set up arrangements to turn themselves in, or be taken into custody.

Cross examination continues

• 12:43 p.m. Thursday

Smith continued her cross examination of Willis.

Court back in session

• 12:41 p.m. Thursday

Matthews is back and court is in session.

The jury entered one minute later.

Jennifer Crumbley back in courtroom

• 12:40 p.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley has returned to the courtroom and sat down next to Smith.

Willis: ‘Murder, I imagine’

• 12:28 p.m. Thursday

Willis said if he had evidence that the parents of the Oxford High School shooter had seen what he wrote in his journal, they would be facing murder charges, not involuntary manslaughter charges.

Click here for a deeper dive into that comment.

Willis remains on stand

• 12:15 p.m. Thursday

Willis will continue to testify when court resumes, as Smith had just started her cross examination. He has returned to the courtroom from multiple breaks, but the interruptions have extended his testimony into the afternoon.

So far, Willis has answered questions about the shooter’s journal, the path the shooter took in the school hallways, the initial stages of the investigation, the search warrant at the Crumbleys’ house, and surveillance footage from the Detroit building where the Crumbleys were eventually arrested.

He also talked the jury through several documents from the time between the shooting and the arrest of the Crumbleys. Those documents included burner phone receipts, bank transactions, and hotel receipts.

‘We’re letting it all hang out’

• 12:03 p.m. Thursday

Matthews said she understands what Keast is trying to put on the record. But she said the point of admitting all the evidence is that the two sides are “letting it all hang out.”

“We’re letting it all hang out,” Smith agreed. “I don’t want any redactions because I think it -- Mr. Keast has made it look like we put redactions in there, we’re hiding stuff.”

“I don’t know why we’re talking about this,” Matthews said. “The whole record came in. It is in evidence. It is fair game, OK?”

Keast points to Jennifer Crumbley’s testimony

• 11:51 a.m. Thursday

Matthews asked when this issue with the Facebook messages is going to come up. Keast said it would be when Jennifer Crumbley takes the stand.

He reiterated he wanted to highlight the pattern of Smith admitting evidence that was previously ruled inadmissible for the trial.

Facebook messages

• 11:48 a.m. Thursday

Keast pointed to the Facebook messages between Jennifer Crumbley and her husband as one of the pieces of evidence Smith admitted mid-trial as part of that alleged strategy.

He said there are “a number of issues” to explore within those messages and asked for time to go through them adjust the prosecution’s argument accordingly.

“I just want to make sure the people are given the opportunity to review all of those 2,000 pages of messages appropriately before that cross examination begins,” Keast said, speaking of Jennifer Crumbley taking the stand.

Smith argued that the prosecution moved to admit the entire thread of messages in front of the jury, so she had to agree to avoid making it look like Jennifer Crumbley had something to hide.

“Since that time, I’ve read the whole thing and I’m ready to go with it,” Smith said of the messages. “What he’s saying is he’s not ready to go with it even though he moved to admit it and even though it was days ago that he moved to admit it.”

Keast said he moved for a redacted copy to be admitted. Smith said she replied to them the very next day and said she had no redactions.

Keast outlines issue with defense strategy

• 11:44 a.m. Thursday

Before they could leave for lunch Keast spoke up that he wanted to put on the record the prosecution’s issue with Smith and the overall defense strategy.

Specifically, he criticized what he suggested was a trend of bringing up inadmissible evidence in the middle of the trial and having it admitted without alerting the prosecution.

“The issue that the people have is that it appears counsel is trying to usurp the court’s order, without notice to the people,” Keast said. “The journal appears to be a pattern of strategy, which is without notice, mid-witness shifting from what the court has already ordered to what counsel chooses to be convenient.

“If that’s trial strategy, then that’s trial strategy, but we have the court’s order, not the defendant’s order, and I don’t believe it is appropriate for any party to usurp the court’s order. I also don’t think it’s appropriate that the people will have to respond off the cuff.

“I want to make sure that our witnesses are prepared. I want to make sure the materials necessary for cross examination are prepared, as well.”

Jury’s lunch arrived during break

• 11:35 a.m. Thursday

Matthews said the jury’s lunch arrived during the break, so they are eating.

She said she wants to return and continue at 12:30 p.m.

Judge rules on journal

• 11:33 a.m. Thursday

Matthews said she’s “very concerned” about the journal and wanted to focus on that matter, not the Facebook messages.

“I don’t think under any circumstances any more of this journal should come in,” Matthews said. “In the event that it was going to come in, I think that it should have been handled prior to the jury trial. I am trying very much to protect a potential appellate record and I do not want to delve into this journal. I think that would do nothing more than hurt Mrs. Crumbley severely. It is highly prejudicial. That is my ruling on that.”

Keast talks about defense strategy

• 11:32 a.m. Thursday

Keast said the defense is entitled to its own strategy. He said counsel wants to keep reversing course mid-trial.

“That’s her decision, but we need time to prepare,” Keast said.

Keast then asked for time to go through the entire Facebook message threat between Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, which was also admitted mid-trial.

Journal entries could open door to bird head

• 11:28 a.m. Thursday

Matthews said this argument is one worth spending time on. She told Smith that the shooter didn’t want to be caught with the bird head and the jar.

“I’m pretty sure that you do not want that to come in,” Matthews said.

Smith agreed. She said she didn’t take the journal entry in question to be in regard to the bird.

“I don’t want to open the door to the bird,” Smith said.

“He’s talking about getting caught with putting the bird head in the bathroom,” Matthews said. “I don’t think you want that.”

“Correct, I don’t want that, Your Honor,” Smith said.

Court back in session

• 11:26 a.m. Thursday

Matthews returned and court was called back into session.

Jennifer Crumbley returns

• 11:25 a.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley is back in the courtroom

More on journal messages

• 11:21 a.m. Thursday

Here is a deeper dive into the journal entries that were highlighted by the prosecution during Willis’ testimony.

‘This is the third time’

• 11:12 a.m. Thursday

Keast expressed during the discussion about the journal that the prosecution needs to know the ground rules for the trial.

The said it’s the third time that proceedings have been halted to discuss evidence that was deemed inadmissible before the trial began: Once for the full transcript of Facebook messages between Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, which included discussion about alcohol use, another time for the extramarital affair, and now for the content of the shooter’s journal.

“We went through the Facebook messages detailing alcohol use,” Keast said. “We talked yesterday in depth about the extramarital affairs that were previously excluded, and now the journal. This is the third time, mid-trial. We just need the ground rules. The court gave us those ground rules a long time ago, and we prepared a case in accordance with that.

“So if the door’s open, the door’s open.”

“OK, well, that concerns me, too,” Matthews said before leaving for a brief recess.

When court returns

• 11:02 a.m. Thursday

When court returns from this break, Smith will continue her cross examination of Lt. Timothy Willis, who was in charge of the investigation into the Oxford High School shooting.

Smith asked to approach the witness to show certain lines from the shooter’s journal. That sparked a discussion about what is allowed to be brought up from that journal.

The jury was excused and both sides made their case to Judge Matthews. It’s not clear what exactly will be allowed when the cross examination resumes.

Brief recess

• 10:53 a.m. Thursday

“I’m going to take a brief recess,” Matthews said.

The judge left the courtroom and Jennifer Crumbley was escorted out by deputies.

Arguments continue

• 10:50 a.m. Thursday

Smith continued to argue for her right to bring up certain portions of the journal.

Keast said the prosecution has been very careful to stay within the court’s ground rules when they bring up parts of the journal.

“I’m getting hamstrung and stuck because of other extraneous legal issues,” Smith said.

“She’s being hamstrung by her own motions to exclude,” Keast said. “We didn’t move to exclude any of this evidence.”

What Smith wants to bring up in court

• 10:43 a.m. Thursday

Smith wants to admit two segments of the journal. The first is the shooter writing that he doesn’t want to get caught looking for the gun because that would make getting the gun “impossible.”

There was also a line where the shooter wrote that he didn’t know where his dad hid the gun.

Argument about shooter’s testimony

• 10:41 a.m. Thursday

Smith said the shooter shouldn’t be allowed to plead the Fifth because he has pleaded guilty to all 24 counts against him in adult court.

“Is that (case) over?” Matthews asked.

Smith agreed that the shooter could pursue an appeal.

“Even if he was called as a witness, you understand the prosecution would have a right to cross examine him,” Matthew said.

Smith clarified that the ruling is that the law won’t allow her to call the shooter as a witness.

“Then I’ve preserved the record and I’m moving on,” Smith said.

Sections of journal under consideration

• 10:38 a.m. Thursday

This discussion specifically centered around which excerpts of the journal Smith planned to discuss with Willis.

Matthews asked Smith to be very specific about which portions of the journal she plans to bring up with Willis.

Smith said she has to discuss these writings with Willis because she isn’t allowed to call the shooter as a witness. Matthews said Smith can call the shooter, but nobody is allowed to put a witness in front of the jury if that witness plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

“If someone takes the Fifth in front of the jury, it’s over,” Matthew said. “It’s a mistrial.”

Jury excused for discussion with judge

• 10:36 a.m. Thursday

The jury was excused for 10 minutes so Smith and Keast could discuss a matter with the judge.

Charges would be murder if parents had seen journal

• 10:34 a.m. Thursday

Smith asked if there’s any evidence that Jennifer Crumbley ever saw the shooter’s journal. Willis said if he had evidence that the parents had seen their son’s journal, the charges would be murder, not involuntary manslaughter.

Cross examination: Lt. Timothy Willis

• 10:33 a.m. Thursday

Smith began her cross examination of Willis.

Car backed into parking spot

• 10:27 a.m. Thursday

Another surveillance video, from 3:48 p.m. Dec. 30, 2021, shows James Crumbley walking out to the Kia.

He got in, backed out of the parking spot, and then turned the SUV around so that it was now backed into the parking spot in the corner.

He then walked back inside. Prosecutors were trying to show that the Crumbleys wanted to hide the car’s license plate.

This was about four hours after charges against the parents were announced.

Crumbleys arrive at Detroit building

• 10:23 a.m. Thursday

Surveillance video from the building on Bellevue Street in Detroit shows the Crumbleys’ Kia pulling into the parking lot after their friend had opened the security gate at 10:58 a.m. Dec. 3. That’s the building where the Crumbleys were ultimately arrested.

The friend could be seen talking on the phone and walking out into the parking lot.

Once the Crumbleys pulled into the corner parking spot, Jennifer Crumbley and her husband got out and walked up to their friend. They entered the building.

Money withdrawn

• 10:21 a.m. Thursday

On Dec. 2, the Crumbleys withdrew cash on “multiple occasions,” Keast said. Willis agreed. A withdrawal of $2,000 from Flagstar Bank was made by Jennifer Crumbley.

Another Flagstar Bank receipt shows a Dec. 3 withdrawal of $4,000 made by Jennifer Crumbley.

Another document showed a $3,000 transfer was made on Nov. 30, 2021, after the shooting from a “simply kids” savings account for the shooter. Keast said 99 cents were left in the shooter’s account.

Paper trail in search for Crumbleys

• 10:14 a.m. Thursday

Willis said the parents bought the “track phones” (or burner phones) at a Walmart in Lapeer.

The receipt shows the phones were bought at 8:01 p.m. Nov. 30, 2021.

A receipt for a hotel shows the Crumbleys stayed overnight at the Holiday Inn Express in Lapeer.

The day after the shooting, Willis said the Crumbleys went to an extended stay hotel on University Drive in Auburn Hills. They checked out on Dec. 3, 2021. That’s where the first vehicle belonging to the parents was recovered.

A T-Mobile receipt shows the purchase of two replacement phones on Dec. 2 in Owosso, Michigan, which is about an hour away from Oxford, according to Willis.

The swear-to for Jennifer Crumbley was Dec. 3, 2021, Willis said. The parents had appeared for their son’s court appearance two days earlier on Zoom from their car, he said.

Parents charged

• 10:14 a.m. Thursday

Wilis said the Crumbleys were charged around noon Dec. 3, 2021.

Willis said when charges were about to be announced, Willis knew the parents weren’t at home. He deployed David Hendrick, the leader of the fugitive apprehension team at the time, to find the parents.

“I told him to go attempt to look for them,” Willis said.

Hendrick previously testified that that happened on Dec. 2. Willis said that’s probably correct but he doesn’t remember exactly when that happened.

Video ends

• 10:11 a.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley could be heard screaming “Patrick” over and over as someone apparently passed outside the cop car.

An officer then took Jennifer Crumbley out of the vehicle. Keast clarified that that’s when she was brought to the back of the other car and questioned by Sgt. Matthew Peschke.

Video of parents in back of cop car

• 10:06 a.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley asked officers why she was in handcuffs and then said, “I’m getting claustrophobic.”

The timestamp on the video shows it’s 2:49 p.m. Nov. 30, 2021.

“Why are they here?” she asked from the back of the car. “Why are they here?”

James Crumbley was also in the back of the car, but he was not in handcuffs. Jennifer Crumbley asked him to put chapstick on her lips, so he did.

Deputies driving to Crumbleys’ house

• 10:06 a.m. Thursday

Willis said he sent officers to the Crumbleys’ house, which is about one mile from the school.

Keast played dash cam footage from a police car that shows the Crumbleys in handcuffs in the back of a police car.

Jury returns, questioning resumes

• 10:05 a.m. Thursday

The jury returned to the courtroom, and Keast continued his questioning of Willis.

Court back on record

• 10:03 a.m. Thursday

Matthews returned to the courtroom.

Keast told the judge that a juror passed a family member of a victim in the restroom during the break. He said no words were spoken but he wanted to place it on the record.

Jennifer Crumbley returns

• 10:02 a.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley returned to the courtroom.

Emotional exchange before break

• 9:56 a.m. Thursday

After the video of the shooting had been played in the courtroom, Willis was very emotional while trying to explain why police had to pass victims in the hallway.

“I know those officers,” he said, before pausing to compose himself.

Smith asked the judge if the court could take a break, but Willis asked to be able to finish his sentence.

Smith apologized, and Willis said that’s OK. He explained that officers had to make sure the shooter was no longer a threat before treating victims.

Once he had completed that thought, the jury was excused and the court took a break so everyone could take a deep breath and regain their composure.

Court takes break

• 9:43 a.m. Thursday

After the video from inside Oxford High School was shown in the courtroom, the jury was excused and Matthews agreed to a 10-minute break.

Jennifer Crumbley was escorted out by Oakland County deputies.

Officers run past victims

• 9:41 a.m. Thursday

Willis talked about officers who were seen in the video running past victims of the shooting.

Willis said officers are trained to first enter these types of situations and stop the shooter. He said that’s why they couldn’t stop immediately to render aid to victims.

Willis was visibly emotional during the video and as he described what he saw.

“I know those officers,” Willis said. “That is that hardest thing they’ve ever had to do in their life.”

The shooter was taken into custody at 1 p.m. Nov. 30, 2021.

Journal entries

• 9:36 a.m. Thursday

Here are photos of the portions of the journal that were shown in the courtroom. WARNING: There is profane language in some of the photos.

Video plays in courtroom

• 9:31 a.m. Thursday

Keast stopped the video and identified the shooter and five people who were later shot. He also pointed out Hana St. Juliana and Madisyn Baldwin.

Keast played the video from 12:51:31, when the shooting began. Jennifer Crumbley was crying in the silent courtroom and looking down at the table.

Video from inside school

• 9:29 a.m. Thursday

The prosecution showed video from inside the school, and cameras were not allowed to show the video. Audio was allowed to continue.

The shooting began at 12:51 p.m. Nov. 30, 2021.

Willis described the shorter portion of the 200 hallway inside Oxford High School. The shooter takes a right turn from the hallway into the bathroom next to room 258 with his backpack over his shoulders.

Drawings in journal

• 9:28 a.m. Thursday

One drawing showed a gun to a woman’s head.

Another appeared to compare types of ammunition.

References to shooting in journal

• 9:26 a.m. Thursday

“I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the f------ school,” the shooter wrote.

“I want help but my parents don’t listen to me so I can’t get any help,” the shooter wrote.

“My parents won’t listen to me about help or a therapist,” the shooter wrote.

“I want to shoot up the f----- school so badly,” the shooter wrote. “Soon I am going to buy a 9 mm pistol.”

“I’m about to shoot up the school and spend the rest of my life in prison,” the shooter wrote.

“First off, I got my gun,” the shooter wrote. “It’s a SP2022 SIG Sauer 9 mm. Second, the shooting is tomorrow. I have access to the gun and the ammo. I am fully committed to this now. So yeah, I’m going to prison for life and many people have about one day left to live.”

Shooter’s journal

• 9:22 a.m. Thursday

Willis said about 22 pages had been written on in the shooter’s journal. The pages were written on from the back cover toward the front.

Willis cut the journal out of an evidence bag in the courtroom so he could show it to the jury.

On of those pages had a drawing and a quote from a book, Willis said. Each of the other 21 pages references the school shooting, he said.

Drawings in backpack

• 9:21 a.m. Thursday

On pieces of paper in the shooter’s backpack (there were over 90), and more than 50 had drawings of firearms on them, according to Willis.

Shooter’s path

• 9:18 a.m. Thursday

Willis said through interviews and reviewing evidence he learned the path the shooter took during the shoting.

Willis said the shooter exited the bathroom near room 258, and that’s where the shooting began. The shooter had left his backpack in the bathroom.

Bomb squad called

• 9:18 a.m. Thursday

Willis said a police bomb dog alerted to the shooter’s backpack in the school.

The Michigan State Police bomb squad went in with a robot. Willis said they determined that the bag was safe.

Officers sent to Crumbley home

• 9:17 a.m. Thursday

When Willis officially learned the identity of the shooter, the shooter was on the way to the substation. Willis told officers to attempt to interview the shooter.

He also told officials to go to the shooter’s home to look for any additional casualties.

“It’s not uncommon in a shooting situation where a shooter starts in the home and then goes to the school,” Willis said.

He said there was also a concern about potential explosives because police had found a video on social media of the shooter with a molotov cocktail.

“There was also a journal with written passages in it that described secondary devices,” Willis said. He said there was a concern that there could be secondary devices around the school.

Starting the investigation

• 9:14 a.m. Thursday

Willis said at the start of the investigation he had to collect himself because he was “pretty overwhelmed.”

Students were brought to Meijer to be reunited with parents.

Willis announced that he was handling the investigation to the hundreds of authorities at the school. He said he asked for investigators and several of them came forward.

ATF Special Agent Brett Brandon asked him if he had the registered owner of the murder weapon. He offered to figure that out and handle that tracking. Willis said he heard from him a short time later that the gun was registered to James Crumbley.

Injuries

• 9:13 a.m. Thursday

Willis also named the other seven people who were shot and injured during the shooting.

Students who were murdered

• 9:08 a.m. Thursday

Keast handed Willis the autopsy protocols for the four students who were killed in the Oxford High School shooting.

He confirmed the identities of 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana, 16-year-old Tate Myre, 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin, and 17-year-old Justin Shilling.

Hana St. Juliana was killed by multiple gunshot wounds -- upper torso, abdomen, forearm and thighs. It was ruled a homicide.

Madisyn Baldwin was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. It was also ruled a homicide.

“It was a close-contact shot, meaning the firearm was either on or near the victim’s head when the trigger was pulled,” Willis said.

Tate Myre was killed by a gunshot wound to the back of the head. It was also ruled a homicide.

Justin Shilling was killed by a gunshot wound to the head. He was also shot at close contact to the back of the head, Willis said. It was ruled a homicide.

Charging decision

• 9:07 a.m. Thursday

Willis said he directed officers to secure the Crumbley home because police had learned where the shooter lived.

He took the information from the investigation and made the charging investigation.

There were about 1,700 people using the school that day, and they weren’t using lockers, so there was a “massive amount of evidence” at the school, Willis said.

Handling investigation

• 9:05 a.m. Thursday

Willis was advised that he would be handling the investigative portion of the case.

“There were so many tips, if you will, social media tips that a lot of them certainly turned out not to be true, but they had to be vetted,” Willis said.

He said he had to look into those tips. People at hospitals had to be interviewed. It was his responsible to coordinate the investigative effort.

Willis said he was the officer in charge of the case. That means he identifies and has witnesses and victims interviewed.

Chaos at scene

• 9:01 a.m. Thursday

When he first got to the school, Willis saw students leaving and first responders flooding into the school.

“I remember being shocked at the amount of resources in a northern Oakland County school that quickly,” Willis said.

Willis went inside the school to the front office area and the perimeter had already been secured. The interior command was the area where authorities gathered for their assignments.

Willis said people saw cars flying past and people running around, so police were receiving several tips about the shooter’s whereabouts.

Heading to school

• 8:59 a.m. Thursday

When he realized the shooting was real and not a drill, Willis said he went to his car and drove to the scene with his lights and sirens activated. He arrived within 20 minutes.

He said Lapeer Road was just “lights, sirens, cars flooding northbound. It was chaos.”

Learning about shooting

• 8:58 a.m. Thursday

On the day of the Oxford High School shooting, Willis was at the prosecutor’s office for a separate matter when he learned that there was an active shooter.

Witness: Lt. Willis

• 8:55 a.m. Thursday

Lt. Timothy Willis, of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, is a detective lieutenant who is in charge of the special investigative unit, the computer crimes unit, and the fugitive apprehension team.

He has been a lieutenant since 2016 and a police officer since 1996.

Jury enters

• 8:54 a.m. Thursday

The jury has entered the courtroom.

Smith objects to speeches on record

• 8:52 a.m. Thursday

Smith said when the prosecutor makes objections, he has been making speeches in front of the jury. She admitted that she has done the same thing.

The judge said both sides need to stop talking over each other. She also said Wednesday got “a little crazy” because Smith opened the door to a topic that had previously been ruled inadmissible.

Court in session

• 8:49 a.m. Thursday

Judge Matthews has arrived and court is in session.

Jennifer Crumbley testimony

• 8:47 a.m. Thursday

Smith might begin to call her own witnesses to the stand at some point Thursday, and based on what she said at the beginning of the trial, Jennifer Crumbley plans to testify at some point.

When prosecutors and the defense discussed the admission of evidence relating to Jennifer Crumbley’s affair, Keast pointed out that he would be able to bring up that topic while she was on the stand. She said she understood and allowed it to be admitted anyway.

Smith has been trying to prepare her witnesses for when the prosecution rests, but she claims they aren’t extending her the professional courtesy of letting her know when that will be. Keast has maintained that “you’ll know when we know.”

Jennifer Crumbley enters courtroom

• 8:43 a.m. Thursday

Jennifer Crumbley has entered the courtroom.

Defense refutes that Crumbleys were on run

• 8:31 a.m. Thursday

Smith hasn’t had a chance to call her own witnesses yet, but she has made a few key points to try to refute that the Crumbleys were on the run from police.

When the business owner matched the license plate on the wanted poster to the one on the Kia parked in his parking lot, the person sitting next to the car didn’t run away, Smith said. Furthermore, when police cars arrived, they stayed put in the building instead of fleeing.

Smith said that the Crumbleys stayed within an hour of the court that had issued charges against them, and both cars were found within that area.

Smith said the Crumbleys bought “burner phones” because their phones had been taken by police, and they wanted to be able to stay in touch with some of the people in their contacts.

Prosecutors suggest Crumbleys were on run

• 8:18 a.m. Thursday

The combination of witnesses called by the prosecution Wednesday was clearly meant to establish that Jennifer Crumbley and her husband were in hiding and on the run from police.

They pointed to the noise police made during their search of the building, specifically when they used a battering ram to open doors near the art studio. They were trying to show that the Crumbleys clearly would have heard what was going on, but they never came out of the room.

Then, when the door to the art studio was forced open, the Crumbleys remained still on a mattress, suggesting they were not asleep, but pretending to be, according to the prosecution.

Photos from the room showed newly purchased clothes, more than $6,000 in cash, and an assortment of groceries. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald asked Creer about these photos and painted a picture of a couple who were preparing for an extended stay at the art studio.

Arrest at Detroit building

• 8:09 a.m. Thursday

Much of Wednesday’s testimony centered around the Detroit building where the Crumbley parents were found and taken into custody in the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 2021.

Prosecutors called the officer who took their cellphones and the officer who led the efforts to find the Crumbleys when involuntary manslaughter charges were formally issued.

Next, the owner of a business inside the building on Bellevue Street in Detroit described the night he located the Crumbleys’ car in the parking lot, and his 911 call was played in the courtroom.

David Shaw was the first officer to enter the art studio where the Crumbleys were found, and his body cam footage was played for the jury.

Creer provided context to dozens of photos that were taken inside the art studio once the Crumbleys had been taken into custody.

Will interviewers testify?

• 7:55 a.m. Thursday

When Smith suggested during her cross examination of Meloche that he had been coerced into speaking negatively about Jennifer Crumbley by police interviewers, Keast mentioned that he reserved the right to call those officers to the stand to testify.

Keast said multiple times that Smith was targeting “veteran officers of more than 30 years.” Meloche later testified that he didn’t actually feel like he was being threatened, so it’s unclear if the prosecution will try to add those officers to its witness list.

20 witnesses

• 7:47 a.m. Thursday

So far, through the first five days of the trial, the prosecution has called 20 witnesses to the stand.

The most extensive testimony came from Oakland County computer crimes expert Edward Wągrowski, who was on the stand for the entire second day of the trial. In fact, prosecutors only got through eight witnesses in the first three days.

But the pace has picked up each of the past two days, with six witnesses each. Wednesday ended with Brian Meloche, Jennifer Crumbley’s high school friend and secret lover, and William Creer, a forensic technician for the Detroit Police Department.

Affair admitted

• 7:33 a.m. Thursday

On Wednesday, a line of questioning by defense attorney Shannon Smith led to both sides agreeing to admit some previously inadmissible evidence: information about Jennifer Crumbley’s extramarital affair with Brian Meloche.

In the middle of Meloche’s testimony, Smith’s assertion that police intimidated him into changing his feelings about Jennifer Crumbley led to a heated exchange with the prosecution. In the end, Jennifer Crumbley and both sides agreed to put information about the affair on the record, after all.

Breakdowns from previous court dates

• 7:18 a.m. Thursday

If you missed any of our updates from the first five days of the Jennifer Crumbley trial, or from the jury selection process, here are links to those articles:

• Day 1 of jury selection.
• Day 2 of jury selection.
• Day 1 of trial (Jan. 25, 2024).
• Day 2 of trial (Jan. 26, 2024).
• Day 3 of trial (Jan. 29, 2024).
• Day 4 of trial (Jan. 30, 2024).
• Day 5 of trial (Jan. 31, 2024).

Court schedule for Thursday

• 7:04 a.m. Thursday

Day 6 of the trial will continue with prosecutors calling witnesses to the stand, but the defense might begin to call its own by the end of the day if the prosecution rests. Judge Cheryl A. Matthews asked the jury to be ready by 8:30 a.m. Thursday.