The parents of the Oxford High School shooter will learn how long they’ll be spending behind bars.
Tuesday (April 9) is the sentencing day, and prosecutors are seeking a minimum of 10 years for both parents and a maximum of 15 years.
While James and Jennifer Crumbley’s trials were held separately, the court decided to sentence them on the same day.
We expect to hear from the victims; their impact statements will be a factor when the judge hands down sentences for the Crumbley’s Tuesday morning.
There is no word on whether the Crumbleys will speak, and there is also no word on whether the judge will grant Jennifer’s request to be released on house arrest.
“A lot of judges want to hear, ‘You’re convicted now,’ they want to hear remorse, and they want to hear contrition,” said Criminal Defense Attorney Neil Rockind. “They want to see you apologize and own up and fess up. They want to see your humanity at the sentencing hearing.”
Rockind will be following the Crumbley’s sentencing as closely as he followed their individual trials. He isn’t sure if they will speak as it could be risky.
“Jennifer Crumbly is hamstrung by her own words that she uttered on the witness stand, and it’s clear that the jury rejected her testimony,” Rockind said.
Too many remarks could come back to haunt her during her appeal. An unusual request has already been made, and Jennifer and her attorney are asking that she be released on a tether to serve her sentence at her attorney’s guest house.
“She won’t have any communication with her son, she won’t have any communication with her husband, she is in many ways going to be labeled a pariah, so in that respect, she has suffered, and there is suffering that her lawyers are going to argue that she has suffered enough,” Rockind said.
Many question whether the judge who presided over James and Jennifer Crumbley’s trial would go for it.
Rockind said he doesn’t think so.
As for James, he did not testify at his trial, but phone calls he made, deemed threatening by prosecutors, could weigh into the judge’s sentencing decision.
One thing seems clear: the words carrying the most weight Tuesday will come from the victims.
“They are going to argue that if you had paid any bit of attention to what was going on in your house with your son, this wouldn’t have happened, and our children would be alive,” Rockind said.
Sentencing will occur Tuesday at 9 a.m.
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