After testimony took a salacious turn Wednesday, with Jennifer Crumbley agreeing to let jurors know she had an affair with a prosecution witness who testified about their messages after the Oxford High School massacre, prosecutors will move toward wrapping up their case.
The messages showed her distress about her son and the impact on her life, along with anger toward school officials.
Watch Thursday’s proceedings live here.
Crumbley is charged with involuntary manslaughter as prosecutors seek to hold her and her husband, James, who goes on trial in March, for the four murders committed by their son on Nov. 30, 2021. Prosecutors allege that the couple knew their son was mentally troubled and bought him a gun that he used in the shooting rather than getting him professional help.
Their son, Ethan Crumbley, pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. The case is the first to put parents on trial over a school shooting, and has drawn national interest. Shannon Smith is Jennifer Crumbley’s lawyer.
The updates below in general are in reverse chronological order, with the newest testimony and developments appearing first.
Mother explains why she ignored some texts
Jennifer Crumbley’s testimony included discussion of texts she sent her husband stating she was worried about her son, wanted to know where her son was and stating she was worried her son might do something stupid.
She explained that she was always worried about where her son was. She didn’t worry that he would hurt himself, but she feared he may walk home from school on a different route and not come home.
She also testified about a night when her son texted her saying weird stuff was going on the house again. When she got home, she said her son asked her why he didn’t respond. She told him she was driving, and not looking at her phone at the time.
She was then asked about other texts her son sent, saying he heard someone flushing the toilet.
Crumbley said she did not take it seriously.
“He was just messing with us,” she testified.
She then testified about a text message her son sent her about clothes flying off the shelves.
She maintained those texts, like others, weren’t alarming.
“He’s just messing with us,” she testified, stating earlier that her son was sarcastic and prone to pulling pranks with her and his dad.
Crumbley was also questioned about texts her son to a friend in the spring of 2021, alleging he asked his parents for help and his mom laughed at him.
“Was there ever a time when he asked for help and you laughed?” Smith asked.
No, she answered.
She said he never told her about hearing voices, nor did he ever ask her to go to a doctor.
She was also asked about a text she sent to a school mom about Ethan: “He’s been acting kind of depressed. I don’t know what’s going on … I think his grades have something to do with it.”
At the time, she said, her family was in Florida because her mother-in-law, who lived there, was sick, and her son fell behind in school.
“Those two weeks we were in Florida, he fell pretty behind,” she testified.
“It discontinued. It was a phase,” she said.
Even though he was sad, did you ever feel he ever needed mental health treatment? Smith asked.
No,” she answered.
What about when his closest friend moved away? her lawyer asked.
Not then, either, she said.
Crumbley was then asked about a statement to which her lover testified on Wednesday: that Jennifer Crumbley told him on the day of the shooting that the gun was in her car.
That wasn’t true, Crumbley said, adding she believes that the friend with whom she had an affair, Brian Meloche, was confused.
Meloche testified that he had trouble remembering things.
Smith sought to point that out, noting that Meloche testified at trial that he had met Crumbley’s son, but later said he never met the boy.
Crumbley testified that Meloche had met her son a few times.
A rare opportunity to spend time together at the shooting range
Crumbley testified about the shooting range trip she took with her son on Nov. 27, just three days before the high school massacre.
She said her husband got the gun ready for her — he took the lock off — and she went because it was a rare occasion. Her son typically goes to the range with his dad, she said.
“It was a fun day. He’s never asked just me to go, and I felt good about it,” she said.
After the trip to the shooting range, she said she and her son returned home, James Crumbley told her he put the gun away.
The next day, she got a call from the school that her son was researching bullets.
That day, Crumbley said a school official called her and left a message that the situation had been taken care of, that her son had been spoken to. The official wished her a happy holiday.
Smith then asked Crumbley to explain the text she sent her son: “LOL I’m not mad … You have to learn not to get caught.”
Crumbley told the jury that it was an ongoing joke in her family that she was able to get away with stuff when she was in high school. She said the school’s phone call was not alarming or concerning, so she didn’t respond.
Crumbley then discussed red flags that school officials said went up about her son at school that year, but never told her about. School officials testified about the incidents as prosecution witnesses.
Earlier: Jennifer Crumbley’s trial turns up heat on school officials: Why wasn’t backpack searched?
Crumbley said she was never made aware of several of the problems, which school officials corroborated in their testimony.
For example, Crumbley said she was never informed that her son was falling asleep in class, that he had written an autobiography calling his life a mistake or that he was acting depressed and sad in Spanish class.
Crumbley was also questioned about a text she sent her husband about getting drunk and riding her horse.
“I got some drinks to ride my horse. It was St. Patrick’s Day,” she said matter of factly.
Her lawyer also asked her about the text message she received from her son that day, when he texted her that he was seeing demons throwing bowls around the house.
Crumbley said she couldn’t recall the text, but noted that she doesn’t find it concerning because it was part of joking-around culture they had at their house.
“He’s been convinced that our house has been haunted since it was built,” she told jurors, noting her son played with a Ouija board with a friend. He also often took videos of him opening a door, and saying, “See, it’s slamming.” And the family had a house ghost named Victoria.
It was typical joking around, Crumbley agreed. “It was him messing around. He only did it when we weren’t home. He got bored,” she testified.
Mother didn’t see any reason for psychiatric care
As Crumbley spoke, one juror stared at the floor, not looking up for minutes at a time. Others took notes as she talked about her son’s messy room, how her stove caught fire at Thanksgiving and how she monitored her son’s grades.
She also talked about her son’s closest friend, who moved away not long before the shooting.
“I called him my second son,” Jennifer Crumbley said, noting the friend often slept over at their home. The two boys walked to Frosty Boy together and Little Ceasars. They swam together, fished together.
She also talked about a tracking app she had for her husband and son.
“I was always worried about him,” she said.
“I thought we were pretty close,” she said. “We would talk. We did a lot of things together. I trusted him. I thought I had an open door and that he could come to me,” adding that she thought they were a tight family.
“I did not go through his text messages. I didn’t think I needed to,” she said, but added she did monitor his grades, and had disciplinary issues with him, mainly about grades.
During her testimony, Crumbley said she didn’t see anything where she thought her son needed mental health treatment.
“There’s a couple of times when Ethan had expressed anxiety over taking tests, anxiety over what he was going to do after graduation … but not to a level where I thought he felt he had to see a psychiatrist.” she testified.
She noted that her husband did try to call the school to talk about career planning. She said their son didn’t know what he wanted to do and was stressed about getting into college. He was having a hard time with his future goals, and talked about the military sometimes and expressed interest in being a video game designer.
She also talked about being worried during COVID-19, about taking her son to the doctor because she was always worried about his health. She told the jury about frequent visits to the doctor for headaches her son was experiencing. They thought it was his eyesight, so got him glasses. But it turned out that he had an issue with his teeth that was causing headaches. So they got him braces.
The defense is offering this testimony to rebut the prosecution’s claims that the Crumbleys cared more about their personal lives than their son.
Meanwhile, more than 10 minutes into her testimony, the juror staring down still had not looked up.
While on the stand, Crumbley’s upper chest developed a rash. She said that’s what happens when she is nervous — though she has remained stoic on the stand, showing little to no emotion.
Facebook posts show family life
Jurors also saw the family life of the Crumbleys, as displayed in multiple photos posted by Crumbley on her Facebook page. A trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes. Florida. Camping pictures. Apple picking.
A photo of her young son holding his chinchilla, another one of him petting a horse and him on the beach with his mom. A picture of a skeleton he had drawn — he was a good artist, she told jurors.
She choked up as the photos continued to flash up of her son before the shooting, particularly a photo of him at the front door before his first day of eighth grade.
Crumbley noted that as her son got older it was harder to get him in a photo.
“He didn’t like having his picture taken,” she said.
The photos included shots of Ethan Crumbley and his friend on a houseboat the Crumbleys rented for a weekend. The mother said she had to sneak taking the photos because the boys disliked being in pictures.
The Facebook posts included one from Nov. 26, 2021, four days before the shooting. The family was together cutting down their Christmas tree. Her son and husband were laughing.
On Thanksgiving, family came over and played games.
“Did anything seem strange or off about your son?” Smith asked.
“No,” Crumbley responded.
Jurors also saw a picture of the shooter with his cat, Dexter.
The last time he spoke to his parents at a police substation, she recalled him telling her, “Take care of Dexter.”
Jennifer Crumbley outlines son’s interests
Asked by Smith what her son was interested in, Crumbley said, “He was really into bowling, he was good at it. He enjoyed his metal detector, during trips to Florida and looked for old coins and cans in the neighbor’s yard,” Crumbley said of her son.
“He was into BB guns and target practice. In the backyard, we sent up targets that we got from Amazon.”
She said he was into video games and played soccer from third to eighth grade, and was into coin collecting.
She told jurors she’s an avid reader.
She told jurors she joined ski patrol so the family could ski for free. Her son would come to the ski resort with her when she worked. He didn’t like horses, however, she said, noting it was kind of boring for him.
“At home, we played board games and got the virtual reality headset. We had a pool. We swam together, really just normal stuff,” she said.
“Every year at Halloween, we carved pumpkins. At Thanksgiving, we watched ‘Christmas Vacation’ together.”
She added: “He really liked history. He was a history buff. He played me in Trivia pursuit and beat me every time.”
She said her son had average grades. She had the PowerSchool app on her phone and monitored it multiple times a day. Our biggest struggle with him was missing assignments.
“His problem was that he didn’t try as hard as he could,” she said.
Prosecution rests its case; Jennifer Crumbley prepares to testify
Jennifer Crumbley is taking the stand in her own defense.
After five days of sitting next to her lawyer, watching horrifying videos of her son shooting and killing children, and hearing witnesses portray her as a cold and distant mother, Jennifer Crumbley’s lawyer called her to the witness stand to testify in her own defense.
Before testifying before the jury, defense lawyer Smith asked her if she was aware of the consequences of testifying — that the prosecution has the right to cross-examine her.
Yes, she answered.
“Are you doing this because anyone has coerced or threatened you?” Smith asked.
“No,” Crumbley answered.
“Is it your choice?” her lawyer asked.
Yes, she said, and replied to the judge that she didn’t have any questions.
As testimony began, Crumbley said she did marketing for a real estate firm. “Public speaking is probably my biggest fear,” she told jurors, adding she’s “nervous.”
Smith asked Crumbley to describe her personality.
“I internalize things,” she said. “I tend to hold things in and let it out when I’m alone.”
She told jurors that her husband had a hard time holding down a job after his mom passed away, so it was up to her to help him find a job.
“I take control of things,” she said. “It’s just what I do.”
According to her testimony, she and James Crumbley met 18 years ago. She said it’s been more than two years since they spoke — the day they were arrested. Both have been jailed since then.
Lawyers battle over excerpts from shooter’s journal
The trial turned testy Thursday when defense attorney Smith sought to introduce excerpts from the shooter’s journal that she believes show he did not have easy access to the gun.
Smith wants to introduce three journal excerpts, including one where the shooter talks about trying to figure out where his dad hid the gun, and how he needs to time getting the gun in a way that he doesn’t get caught.
This request came after she asked Oakland County Sheriff’s Det. Lt. Timothy Willis: “You have no evidence to suggest that Mr. or Mrs. Crumbley ever saw the journal?”
“No,” Willis answered. “If I had evidence of that, I think the charges would be different: murder.”
Smith argued that she should have a right to challenge statements in the journal, noting she cannot question the shooter because he is refusing to testify in his mom’s case. That also means she can’t challenge anything the shooter wrote in his journal, which the judge noted has been a troubling issue all along.
At issue is this: Before trial, the defense tried to keep the entire journal out, but Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews decided to let excerpts in.
However, the only excerpts the jury has heard are ones that the prosecution picked.
Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast argued this is an old issue that has already been decided, and that the door should not be opened to include statements the defense now maintains helps the defendant.
But the defense had expected that the shooter, whom it had subpoenaed, was going to testify. Now that he’s not, Smith argued, “I am hamstrung.”
“I understand your position,” said Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews.
After taking a break, Matthews decided the journal excerpts sought by the defense would not be allowed as evidence, including this one:
“I have to find where my dad hid the 9 mm.”
That information is nothing new to the jurors, she said.
“The shooter found the gun, right?” Matthews said, noting jurors have already heard statements by the parents that the gun was hidden, “obviously very poorly,” she added.
Matthews later ruled that none of Ethan Crumbley’s psychological records or interviews could be used as evidence because his appellate attorneys say he objects to that.
Shooter’s journal: ‘I have access to the gun and the ammo. I am fully committed to this’
Jennifer Crumbley wept at the defense table as Willis described the wounds suffered by the teens killed in the school shooting as prosecutors played surveillance video of the shooting.
Willis also struggled emotionally from the stand as he read the autopsy reports. When he read the name of Justin Shilling, the final victim who was killed in a bathroom, where he had been hiding, the boy’s father wept.
Prosecutors also showed writings the shooter had made in a journal in which he said he had “zero HELP for my mental problems and it’s causing me to SHOOT UP THE (expletive) SCHOOL.” The shooter also wrote: “I want help but my parents don’t listen to me so I can’t get any help,” and “My parents won’t listen to me about help or a therapist” and “I’m about to shoot up the school and spend the rest of my life in prison.”
He also wrote about the gun he used in the shooting: “First off I got my gun. It’s a SP2022 Sig Sauer 9mm. Second the shooting is tomorrow. I have access to the gun and the ammo. I am fully committed to this now. So yeah … I’m going to prison for life and many people have about 1 day left to live.”
As video of the shooting was shown, many in the courtroom broke down crying at the terrifying images of the gunman going down the hall, firing at students. Families of the victims wept in their seats. Some jurors also cried, with one refusing to look at the video at one point, holding her head down.
The loudest cries came from the defendant as Jennifer Crumbley struggled to contain herself, sobbing while holding her face in her hands. Her lawyer also struggled as she held her hand to her forehead, looking down and crying.
Assistant Prosecutor Keast asked Willis why officers had to run past some of the victims. Willis explained that in their training for active shooters they are trained to “drive up right to the door” if they have to and go in, head toward gunshots and eliminate the shooter.
“Stop them however you can,” he testified. “Because the situation was active and the killing hadn’t stopped, you can’t stop and render aid.”
Willis said: “I know those officers and that is the hardest thing they’ve ever had to do in their life.”
Judge Matthews called for a short break.
Returning to the courtroom after sitting through the gut-wrenching school shooting video, jurors were shown a video of James and Jennifer Crumbley handcuffed in the back of a patrol car, venting about what was happening.
“Can you take the handcuffs off her please?” James Crumbley pleads.
“Why am I in cuffs? It hurt. It really hurts,” Jennifer Crumbley says. “I’m getting claustrophobic.” Her husband tells her: “Honey don’t freak out in front of the cops.”
But Jennifer Crumbley kept saying, “Why are they here? Why are they here?
Her husband added: “Why are you in f—– handcuffs.”
Jennifer Crumbley continued: “Why are they at our house? I’m so confused.”
Her husband continued to vent: “We’re already dealing with s—. Why do we have to deal with this?”
James Crumbley then told his wife: “Honey I love you if anything happens.”
She didn’t respond.
After telling his wife he loved her, James Crumbley stressed to her that they should tell police nothing until they had lawyers.
Prosecutors showed banking records for the Crumbleys, showing that after the shooting, $2,000 was withdrawn by Jennifer Crumbley withdrew $2,000 from Flagstar Bank on Dec. 2, 2021, and $4,000 more on Dec. 3, 2021.
Willis also testified that on Nov. 30, 2021, there was a $3,000 transfer from Ethan Crumbley’s savings account at Flagstar.
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
