Jennifer Crumbley trial – live: Jury deliberates case of Michigan school shooter’s mother

Ms Crumbley took the stand to testify in her own defence last week.

Her voice quivered as she talked about the day of the shooting.

“I couldn’t believe he had actually shot anybody in the school,” she said, adding that the whole situation felt “surreal.”

“That was the hardest thing I had to stomach – that my child harmed and killed other people,” Ms Crumbley said, stumbling over the last few words and uttering them quietly.

Although she spent most of her time on the stand on Thursday making direct eye contact either with her attorney or the jury box, when she mentioned her son’s shooting, she looked down, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

Her attorney also asked whether Ms Crumbley thought her son was a danger to others, she said: “As a parent you spend your whole life trying to protect your child from other dangers. You never would think you’d have to protect your child from harming somebody else.”

The 45-year-old was then asked whether she considered herself a victim. She said no because she didn’t want to “disrespect those families that truly are the victims”. She then added: “We did lose a lot.”

In the last few moments of the defence’s questioning on Thursday, she was asked whether she could change what had happened if she could. Ms Crumbley said, “Oh absolutely. I wish he would’ve killed us instead.”

On the morning of the shooting, school staff had grown increasingly concerned after finding Ethan’s drawing, depicting a semiautomatic handgun pointing at the words “the thoughts won’t stop help me”.

The Crumbley parents were called in to meet with school staff and their son to discuss it.

While given the choice of whether to keep Ethan in school or take him home, the parents opted for him to return to class. He shot up his school hours later.

A videotaped interview in the hours after the shooting shows investigators asking the parents about this meeting.

Mr Crumbley says their son was “doodling on a test or a practice test,” seemingly referring to the disturbing drawing, when Ms Crumbley interrupts: “I think we probably should have a lawyer.”

Mr Crumbley then says: “I think we can speak to the cops.”

Later in the interview, Ms Crumbley is seen telling police that the school counsellor “didn’t seem worried” about the drawing and that Ethan could either stay at school or his parents could take him home.

“And I really wish we took him home,” she is heard admitting.

Mr Crumbley also says at the start of the interview that he is “freaking out” and asks for some water.

He later tells police that their 15-year-old is a “great kid,” adding that he “doesn’t get in trouble at school”.

When an officer tells the parents that they will need to talk to Ethan, an emotional Ms Crumbley is heard asking: “Why?… He’s never done anything bad”.

The interview also revealed that Ethan had texted his mother — telling her that he loved her — not long before he opened fire on his classmates.

During the interview, Mr Crumbley also shares details with police about where his son had gotten hold of the gun.

He says that the weapon was hidden in a gun case in an armoire and that the bullets were “in a completely different spot underneath some jeans”.

Ms Crumbley faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter. She has pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, the maximum penalty for involuntary manslaughter is 15 years in prison.

As of Monday early afternoon, her case is still in the hands of 12 jurors.

They began deliberating on Monday morning after hearing nearly two weeks of testimony from school officials, law enforcement experts, acquaintances of Ms Crumbley and the defendant herself.

Last week while she took the stand, Ms Crumbley’s defence attorney also brought up text messages between her and her husband which focused a lot on horses.

Ms Crumbley admitted that she talked “a lot more about the horses” than her son in these text exchanges because Mr Crumbley didn’t know horses like she did – so she would explain to her husband how to take care of them while she was at work.

“Horses can’t talk,” she said, but she could talk to her son after school.

The 45-year-old was also asked about her former job. She testified that she had worked as a marketing director at a real estate acquisition company for five years, a job that she said she cared about “a lot”.

They are only allowed to use the evidence admitted during the trial, the judge told jurors.

The jurors specifically asked specifically about how the shooter got the gun and why they didn’t hear from the shooter himself.

Ethan Crumbley did not testify in the case.

Everyone is once again returning into the courtroom.

This is the second time since the jury was handed the case earlier today. The first time, the jury asked questions about their instructions.

After her son Ethan Crumbley opened fire inside the Michigan high school, Ms Crumbley texted Brian Meloche, her long-time friend-turned-lover, that the massacre “could have been prevented,” according to a message revealed in court last week.

Other texts showed her describing the school’s response to Ethan’s disturbing behaviour – such as drawing a doodle of a mass shooting or searching online for ammunition – as “nonchalant”.

On the morning before the shooting, school administrators had called in the Crumbleys to discuss their son’s recent behaviour. The school staff gave the Crumbleys a choice: to take their 15-year-old home that day or to let him stay in school.

They chose to keep him in school, both allegedly citing that they had jobs to return to.

Despite telling school officials she had to return to work, Ms Crumbley had actually messaged Mr Meloche, saying that she could meet up with him, he testified.

Texts also revealed that Ms Crumbley said she wished the school wouldn’t have allowed him to stay in school. Similarly, she admitted to police in a videotaped interview: “I really wish we took him home.”

Mr Meloche also testified that Ms Crumbley told him on the day of the shooting that she realised the gun was gone from their home. He told her to notify the police, he said.

The message had since been deleted, with the firefighter telling the court that he regularly erased messages from Ms Crumbley.

He allegedly told her that she needed to “disappear” when she could and warned her to be careful what she texted or wrote on Facebook Messenger because “the FBI is involved” and “they can access anything and everything”.

Despite his warnings, Ms Crumbley texted Mr Meloche on 2 December: “I’ll never be OK. I lost my son. He’s a murderer. And I’ll forever have to live with that.”

She also texted him: “I failed as a parent, I failed miserably.”

He testified that he never believed Ms Crumbley didn’t care about her child.

Ms Crumbley is facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter in a historic trial.

She and her husband face the same charges but are being tried separately after their son, Ethan Crumbley, opened fire in his high school, killing four students. They have both pleaded not guilty.

Ms Crumbley’s fate is in the hands of 12 jurors, as of Monday morning.

The jury heard two weeks of testimony from a variety of witnesses: law enforcement officers, school administrators, and acquaintances of Ms Crumbley. They even heard from a former lover of Ms Crumbley, who testified that the pair had an affair spanning six months beginning in the spring of 2021.

Ms Crumbley said she and her husband are still married.

The prosecution maintained that while the mother “didn’t pull the trigger that day. But she’s responsible for their deaths.” The prosecutor said in his opening statements that Ethan’s parents “didn’t do any number of tragically small and easy things that would have prevented all this from happening.”

Meanwhile, the defence has described Ms Crumbley as a “hypervigilant” mother, placed blame on the school, and distanced the defendant from her son.

Her son “did something she could have never anticipated, fathomed, or predicted”, the defence said in opening statements. “Her son had not been her son for months.”

The school didn’t tell her about “problematic issues” and gave a series of examples: when he tried to sleep in class, when he failed a test, an index card the shooter wrote in class with a drawing “of a loaded gun magazine”, his meeting with the school counsellor, in which the shooter said, “he was having a tough time”.