OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – A court hearing was held Friday for James Crumbley, the father of the Oxford High School shooter, as he seeks a new trial.
His attorney appeared before Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews for a motion hearing about his request for a new trial. Crumbley waived his right to appear in person and instead listened to proceedings virtually..
Crumbley asked for a new trial at the end of February due to the proffer agreements that were made with two school employees and over claims that the court failed to determine if the shooter asserted his Fifth Amendment right properly.
In the request, Crumbley’s appellate attorney, Alona Sharon, claimed that discovery violations were made because prosecutors didn’t give Crumbley’s attorney copies of the proffer agreements they made with Nick Ejak, the former dean of students at Oxford High School, and Shawn Hopkins, a former Oxford High School counselor.
These two school employees met with the shooter and his parents on Nov. 30, 2021, before the shooting happened, and testified during James and Jennifer Crumbley’s trials.
Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Shada, who filed a motion in response to the request saying it should be denied, said the proffer agreements allowed the prosecution to meet with Ejak and Hopkins to evaluate them as possible witnesses, with the promise that they would give truthful information. Both men knew about the potential criminal liability, and the proffer agreements were created after a request from their attorneys. These kinds of agreements also don’t require testimony.
Crumbley’s appellate attorney also questioned whether the shooter properly asserted his Fifth Amendment right. The shooter didn’t testify at either trial because his attorney said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence if he were called. Because of this, Matthews didn’t allow the shooter to testify.
Shada claims that Crumbley’s trial attorney, Mariell Lehman, could have filed a motion to address this, but did not.
“Defendant’s trial counsel, Ms. Lehman, did not file such a motion seeking to compel the shooter to testify in defendant’s case– nor did she otherwise challenge his claim of Fifth Amendment privilege," Shada said.
However, the prosecutor said this doesn’t mean that Lehman was an ineffective attorney, as Crumbley claims. Shada said that his “trial defense counsel was well aware of the fact that defendant’s son was invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege and that the applicable authority indicated he had a valid claim of privilege; thus, defense counsel knew she could not call him to the stand.”
Shada said Crumbley already received a fair trial, and his claims for a new one are “without merit.”
“The jury determined that defendant was grossly negligent and that his gross negligence was a cause of the four deaths in the Oxford High School shooting, Shada said in a motion filed on April 4, 2025. ”He received a fair trial, and none of defendant’s arguments are sufficient to undermine the unanimous jury verdict."
His wife, Jennifer Crumbley, has also asked for a new trial.
Read More -- Judge hears arguments about proffer agreements as Jennifer Crumbley seeks new trial
Matthews heard arguments for a new trial for the mother based on the alleged discovery violations with the proffer agreements that were made.
The judge said she was “likely in agreement” with Jennifer Crumbley’s attorney about the discovery violations, but said she’d make her decision at a later date.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with their son’s actions in the Oxford High School Shooting on Nov. 30, 2021, which left four students -- 14-year-old Hana St. Juliana; 16-year-old Tate Myre; 17-year-old Madisyn Baldwin; and 17-year-old Justin Shilling -- dead and seven others injured.
They were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison, marking the first time parents in the U.S. have been convicted in connection with a mass shooting carried out by their child.
