The first parents to be held criminally responsible for their child committing a mass school shooting were sentenced on Tuesday to 10 to 15 years in prison, after separate juries found them each guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter. 

In unprecedented trials in February and March, prosecutors successfully made the case that Jennifer and James Crumbley had enabled their troubled son, Ethan Crumbley, to carry out a mass school shooting in an Oxford, Michigan high school in November 2021, which killed four and injured seven.

“Parents are not expected to be physic. But these convictions are not about poor parenting,” the Oakland County circuit judge presiding over the case, Cheryl Matthews, said ahead of sentencing. “These convictions confirm repeated acts or lack of acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train, about repeatedly ignoring things that would make a reasonable person feel the hair on the back of their neck stand up.” 

On the day of the shooting, a school counselor had called Ethan’s parents after he was caught drawing graphic gun-related images on his math worksheet. Jennifer Crumbley refused to take him out of school, citing work, and hours later, Ethan committed the deadly shooting with a gun that James Crumbley had purchased earlier that month.

The case has sparked debate about the extent parents can be held criminally liable for a crime committed by their child, but legal experts have told the Sun that the facts of the case are so unusual that it’s unlikely to create “concerning precedent.”

The 10- to 15-year sentence exceeds the state guidelines, which the judge said was “appropriate and proportional” given that the guidelines don’t capture the severity of the circumstances in the case. 

“Opportunity knocked over and over again, louder and louder, and was ignored — no one answered, and these two people should have and sure didn’t,” she said.

James Crumbley allowed “unfettered access to a gun” and ammunition, Judge Matthews said, and after the shooting characterized himself “as a martyr and threatened the wellbeing of the prosecutor.” 

Jennifer Crumbley “gloried the use and possession of these weapons,” she added, and was “dispassionate and apathetic” towards Ethan and his troubling behavior leading up to the shooting. 

Both parents will receive credit for time served. They have been in prison since December 2021, when they were found in Detroit following a manhunt. 

“I saw what you saw, I heard what you heard, so I can and will offer my deepest and most sincere condolences for your unfathomable losses,” the judge said to the victims and their families. “It’s not the role of the court system to make an example out of the defendants. However it is a goal of sentencing to act as a deterrent.” 

The emotional sentencing included impact statements from family members of the four student victims who were killed in the shooting, as parents and siblings of the victims said their life will never be the same. 

Both parents took the stand to express regret, and Jennifer Crumbley also issued a warning to all parents. 

“The love I have for our son mixed with regret for not seeing what was ahead weighs heavily on me. My point is, this could be any parent up here in my shoes,” Jennifer Crumbley said. “Ethan could be your child, could be your grandchild, could be your niece, your nephew , your brother, your sister. Your child could make a fatal decision, not just with a gun, but with a knife, a vehicle, intentionally or unintentionally.”

She said the tragedy has taught her to love Ethan unconditionally. 

“If there’s anything the general public can take away from this, it’s that this could happen to you too,” she said. 

James Crumbley’s statement was mostly centered around remorse for the victims. 

“I can’t imagine the pain and agony for the families that have lost their children and what they’re experiencing and what they’re going through,” he said. “My heart is really broken for everybody involved.”