The parents of Ethan Crumbley have rightfully been charged along with their son, for the horrific murder of four Michigan students. If they had done their duty instead of drinking, fighting and fornicating, that particular massacre never would have happened.
Parents were a root cause
Prosecutors relate that the parents of Ethan Crumbley, Jennifer and James Crumbley, “spent heavily on alcohol,” while also “habitually arguing” day and night. Their teenager snapped and they still couldn’t be bothered to deal with it. Instead, they bought him his murder weapon.
The way the lawyers expressed it in court, the Crumbleys “exposed him to years of chaotic, toxic conflict.” They left him to mentally deteriorate “in an unstable home often with little supervision, creating a pathway to violence.”
Both sides were in court on August 4 to argue over evidence that the parents had a bunch of serious “personal problems, including an extramarital affair and substance abuse,” which the jury needs to hear about.
Michigan prosecutors say the parents of accused Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley exposed him to years of "chaotic, toxic conflict," creating a pathway to violence. https://t.co/RkR7RfEGmL
— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) August 5, 2022
Defense attorneys are fighting tooth and nail to keep it all under the rug and away from a critical jury. They say none of it can be used because it’s “extraneous.” Funny how they lawyered up with pros and left their son to twist in the wind with a public defender.
Each of Ethan’s parents have been charged, right along with him on four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Their disturbed “teenage son allegedly shot and killed four students and injured seven other people at Oxford High School in November.”
There isn’t much doubt he did it. His mental stability is obviously in doubt, which will affect his own proceedings. Meanwhile, his parent’s aren’t easily slipping off the hook.
A much larger role
According to prosecutors, Jennifer and James Crumbley played “a much larger role than just buying their son a gun.” Parents are expected to watch out for the welfare and well being of their children. There were all sorts of things they could have done, “other than simply locking up the gun, that could have prevented the tragedy.”
For instance, the state argues, they had “every reason” to know their son was “dangerous.” They have proof to back it up, too.
As related by filing documents, “What the evidence will actually show is that these defendants exposed their son to years of chaotic, toxic conflict, which is a well-known risk factor for entering the pathway to violence.” There was a really thorough investigation.
The @nypost shares the latest findings in our Oxford High School shooting case, including how two school officials were placed on paid administrative leave for more than a month after the shooting.https://t.co/Jboyoi5rmh
— Ven Johnson Law (@VenFights) July 17, 2022
“The investigation paints a clear picture of parents who were not just in constant conflict, or who just exposed their son to conflict, but who actively inserted him into their conflict.” Basically, they used him as a pawn in their own battles.
It took a while but detectives “interviewed witnesses from across the country who interacted with the family as far back as when Ethan was in kindergarten.” Neighbors and other acquaintances told investigators that “the parents would consistently fight and drink to excess, often leaving Ethan unsupervised.”
They spent thousands on booze and the horses got more care than Ethan did. “My grades are falling, my parents hate each other, we have no money, I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the f**king school,” he wrote in his journal. The rest is history.
