The parents of a teenager who carried out a deadly school shooting in the United States were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison on Tuesday in an unprecedented and closely watched case.
AFP reports that Jennifer Crumbley and her husband James who bought their son the gun as an early Christmas present were the first parents of a school shooter to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the US for the actions of their child.
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews sentenced them to 10 and 15 years in prison each with credit for the 28 months they have already spent behind bars.
Their son Ethan, who is now 17, is serving a life sentence for the November 30, 2021 shooting which left four students dead and seven other people injured at Oxford High School, 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Detroit.
BBC reports that a seven-year sentence was recommended, but prosecutors asked for more.
Judge Cheryl Matthews said that the expanded sentence of 10 to 15 years was “to act as a deterrent” and reflected the parents’ failure to stop the attack.
“They (parents) are not expected to be psychic. But these convictions are not about poor parenting. They concern acts that could have halted a runaway train,” she told the court.
“Opportunity knocked over and over again, louder and louder, and it was ignored.”
The Crumbleys are eligible for parole after they serve 10 years in prison, but they cannot be held for more than 15 years if parole is denied.
“These convictions are not about poor parenting,” Matthews said at an emotional hearing in Pontiac, Michigan, attended by relatives of the victims. “These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.”
Addressing the Crumbleys in court before sentencing, Nicole Beausoleil, the mother of Madisyn Baldwin, 17, one of the slain students, said, “Not only did your son kill my daughter but you both did as well.”
“The blood of our children is on your hands,” said Craig Shilling, the father of Justin Shilling, 17.
Steve St. Juliana, the father of another victim, Hana St. Juliana, 14, said her murder “has destroyed a large portion of my very soul.”
“I will never walk her down the aisle,” St. Juliana said. “I am forever denied the chance to hold her or her future children in my arms.”
Before the judge pronounced the sentence, the Crumbleys addressed the families of the victims and the court.
“I stand today not to ask for your forgiveness as I know it may be beyond reach but to express my sincerest apologies for the pain that has been caused,” Jennifer Crumbley, 46, said. “I will be in my own internal prison for the rest of my life.”
James Crumbley, 47, told the families he was “sorry for your loss as a result of what my son did.”
“I cannot express how much I wish that I had known what was going on with him or what was going to happen because I absolutely would have done a lot of things differently,” he said.
During separate trials, the Crumbleys were accused of ignoring warnings that their son had mental health struggles.
Jennifer Crumbley said her husband bought their son the 9mm SIG Sauer handgun he used in the attack just days earlier as an early Christmas present.
She took the boy to a shooting range the day after the purchase.
The Crumbleys were summoned to the school on the day of the shooting itself after a teacher became alarmed by a violent drawing she found on Ethan’s desk.
They were shown the drawing and advised they needed to get the boy into counseling. The parents allegedly resisted taking their son home and he returned to class.
He later entered a bathroom, emerged with the gun which had been concealed in his backpack and fired more than 30 shots.
AFP reports that amid a huge number of deadly firearms incidents involving young people in the United States, pressure has been mounting to punish parents who make it possible for their children to get weapons.
The father of an Illinois man accused of killing seven people in July 2022 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of “reckless conduct” for helping his son obtain the rifle used in the mass shooting.