The parents of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley, who killed four classmates at Oxford High School in November 2021, asked a judge this week to lower the $500,000 bonds that kept them in jail for the last year.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are accused of putting the gun within their son’s reach, ignoring his disruptive behavior and failing to get him help with his mental health.
After manslaughter charges were announced against them last year, prosecutors allege they took out a large sum of cash and fled to a Detroit art studio, where they were arrested by police in the early hours of December 4. of 2021.
James and Jennifer Crumbley, who are being held on manslaughter charges, filed a motion to reduce their $500,000 bonds on Wednesday.
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
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Defense attorneys wrote in a motion to reduce bail Wednesday that the Crumbleys needed the cash to secure a legal defense, stayed in motels because they were afraid to be home, and used multiple cellphones because police had seized their original phones. , according to a presentation obtained by the Detroit Free Press.
“Throughout this case, the prosecution has presented an inaccurate narrative to make the Crumbleys sound as if they were on the run prior to their arrest,” defense attorneys wrote in the motion Wednesday, according to the local newspaper.
Texts from Jennifer Crumbley, mother of Ethan Crumbley, a teenager accused of killing four students in a shooting at Oxford High School are shown.
(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
The motion to reduce bail comes about a week after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that a state court should hear an appeal from the Crumbleys. His trial had been set for the next month.
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Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty in October to charges of terrorism and first-degree murder. Under questioning, he admitted that his father bought him the gun used in the shooting only days before the shooting and that it was not kept in a safe.
Ethan Crumbley answers ‘yes’ to the charges against him by the assistant prosecutor during his pre-trial hearing at the Oakland County Courthouse on October 24, 2022, in Pontiac, Michigan.
(Clarence Tabb Jr./Detroit News via AP, file)
Oakland County Attorney Karen McDonald wrote in a court filing in September that Jennifer Crumbley referred to the gun as a “Christmas present” for her son on social media.
“He didn’t break,” the prosecutor wrote in a court filing. “he followed a path paved for him by previous shooters and enabled by these defendants.”
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An attorney for James and Jennifer Crumbley did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
