OXFORD, Mich. – While testifying at her manslaughter trial, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter shifted the blame for certain issues to her husband, who is set to stand trial separately on the same charges next month.
The parents of the Oxford shooter were both charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for their alleged roles in the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting. They were initially scheduled to stand trial as co-defendants starting in January, but a judge granted their request in late 2023 to sever their trials, which claimed certain evidence brought against one parent could be damaging to the other.
Jennifer Crumbley’s trial took place first, beginning on Jan. 25 and wrapping up on Feb. 2, with jury deliberations still underway as of Feb. 6. The trial of the Oxford shooter’s father is scheduled to begin in early March.
Both of the parents have long been accused of ignoring their son’s apparent requests for help with his mental health, and for providing him access to the handgun used in the shooting. At the mother’s trial, it became clear that the parents aren’t afraid of pointing fingers at one another -- at least, Jennifer Crumbley wasn’t.
Throughout the trial, the defense was sure to make it clear that the shooter’s father was responsible for handling and storing the family’s firearms, not Jennifer Crumbley. The mother also testified about the difficult time her husband had in 2021, and how there were certain things she didn’t trust him with.
Here’s what was said at Jennifer Crumbley’s trial.
Mother: Storing, hiding guns was father’s responsibility
Jennifer Crumbley took the stand at her own trial, serving as the defense’s only witness. Throughout the questioning, she repeatedly said she didn’t know much about guns, didn’t have any interest in them, and left all things gun-related to her husband to handle.
One of the key points of this case is how the Oxford shooter, a minor at the time of the shooting, got ahold of the family’s recently-purchased 9mm handgun to use in the 2021 shooting. The prosecution blames the parents for providing easy access to the weapon, which the parents did previously describe as belonging to the shooter.
According to an Instagram post admitted into evidence, Jennifer Crumbley described a Sig Sauer 9mm handgun purchased days before the shooting as her son’s gun, saying it was a Christmas gift. Crumbley wasn’t present when the father and son went to the gun store to purchase the gun, but she did say her son did a lot of research about what gun he wanted, and that the father and son “went back and forth” in texts for months before deciding which gun to buy.
Up until then, the father owned two other handguns -- a KelTec P-17 pistol and a Cobra Classic ENT Derringer. Evidence showed the shooter used both of those weapons while at shooting ranges with his father.
When executing a search warrant at the Crumbley’s home, law enforcement found the KelTec and Derringer firearms in a gun safe stored in a dresser in the parents’ bedroom. The safe was locked, but the code was “000,” prosecutors said.
The case for the 9mm handgun used in the shooting was found open and empty on the parents’ bed, alongside an empty box of ammunition. Jennifer Crumbley asserts this case was secured with a cable lock, which requires a key to open it. The mother said she didn’t know where exactly the key was kept, but did say it was located within one of many beer steins they keep around the home.
Jennifer Crumbley said the storage of all three guns were left to her husband. She testified that the father was responsible for “hiding” the 9mm gun in their bedroom, and that it didn’t always stay in the same place. Jennifer Crumbley said she had no idea where the gun was located when her son accessed it.
Prosecutors allege the gun case in which the 9mm was stored was not, in fact, locked, and that the shooter had knowledge of where it was located. A cable lock -- believed to be the lock provided from the gun store when the 9mm gun was purchased -- was found inside a gun case in the kitchen, and it was inside a bag. Law enforcement testified that it looked like the lock had never been used.
Jennifer Crumbley said she didn’t feel comfortable handling the guns, and trusted that responsibility to her husband.
Husband in a bad way in 2021
Jennifer Crumbley painted her husband as someone who was down on his luck in 2021. The father reportedly struggled to hold down a job after the worst of the COVID pandemic, and after his mother died.
Crumbley said she took control of the situation, trying to help her husband find a job by sending him job listings and staying on top of him during his job search. The father, James Crumbley, was working as a DoorDash delivery driver at the time of the shooting.
Jennifer Crumbley said her husband was drinking more than usual during this time. Text messages also reportedly showed that the wife didn’t trust her husband to take care of certain things on his own, prosecutors asserted during the cross-examination of Jennifer Crumbley.
Prosecutors asked if Jennifer Crumbley trusted her husband to take care of certain things like getting out of bed on time, cutting the grass when needed, keeping her updated on his whereabouts, turning their ring camera on and off -- to all of which the mother said, “no.” Messages between the couple also showed Jennifer was frequently asking her husband about work, money and his employment.
When James Crumbley went to Florida to be with family around the time his mother died, Jennifer Crumbley said she had her husband share his location with her on his cellphone using an app. She testified that her husband was bad about keeping her updated, and that she frequently worried about him.
But when asked if she trusted her husband to handle the family’s firearms, Jennifer Crumbley said, “I did.”
Texts to defense attorney
A privileged text message conversation between the Crumbleys and their attorneys that took place just hours before the parents’ arrest was entered into evidence on the final day of the trial. Before those texts were admitted, Jennifer Crumbley said she went to sleep around 11 p.m. on the night of Dec. 3, 2021. The texts, however, show that at least one of the parents were texting with their attorneys beyond that point.
Prosecutors allege those texts help prove the Crumbley parents were hiding from law enforcement after charges were officially brought against them.
But Jennifer Crumbley said she and her husband were both using the same phone at that time, and that she wasn’t the person sending texts to their attorneys about them being “found” and “laying low.
Jennifer Crumbley testified that she doesn’t deny the texts were on her phone, but said she doesn’t think those texts weren’t sent by her.
Here are the admitted text messages between the Crumbleys and one of their attorneys, Shannon Smith, on Dec. 3, 2021,:
- 7:02 p.m. - Smith to Crumbleys: (We) are going to come get you guys in the morning. We do not think it will help to make a statement that you’re coming back now or that it will be tomorrow a.m. We can say that we told everyone you were coming back, and as of tomorrow a.m., you were back.
- 7:02 p.m. - Smith to Crumbleys: We can show them that everything we said was going to happen, did happen.
- 7:03 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: OK
- 7:36 p.m. - Smith to Crumbleys: I’m going to drive home from my office right now and call you guys in about 40-45 minutes so I can get all the bond factor information written down for (the attorneys).
- 7:37 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: OK, we’ll be waiting
- 8:54 p.m. - Smith to Crumbleys: I’m going to call in one minute
- 8:54 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: OK
- 11:14 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: Think we might have found
- 11:14 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: Don’t know. Just heads up. Please check.
“That was written, but I do not believe it was written by me,” Jennifer Crumbley said of the 11:14 p.m. to Smith in her testimony. She said she and her husband were both using the phone at that time because her husband’s broke.
The prosecutor said the following messages followed that text:
- 11:16 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: Don’t know
- 11:16 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: We might have been found
- 11:16 p.m. - Crumbleys to Smith: Laying low
- 11:16 p.m. - Smith to Crumbleys: Oh s---
---> Prosecutor implies Oxford shooter’s mother lied about sleeping as police swarmed her in Detroit
Watch: Jennifer Crumbley’s full testimony
You can watch Jennifer Crumbley’s entire testimony during direct questioning and cross-examination in the videos below.
Direct questioning
Cross-examination
Click here for full coverage on the Jennifer Crumbley trial.