PONTIAC, Mich. — Jurors on Tuesday saw a photo of an empty gun case and an ammunition box found on a bed after a mass shooting at a Michigan school in 2021.
The open case and box were in James Crumbley’s home bedroom. He’s the father of Ethan Crumbley, who killed four students and wounded more at Oxford High School.
James Crumbley, 47, is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He’s accused of failing to safely store a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun used by his son in the Nov. 30, 2021, attack and ignoring signs of the boy’s mental despair.
The gun was purchased by James Crumbley four days earlier during the Thanksgiving weekend. Fifteen-year-old Ethan and his mother, Jennifer Crumbley, used it to shoot at targets at a shooting range.
“I found no evidence that a cable lock was ever installed on that firearm,” federal agent Brett Brandon testified Monday, describing how the gun was kept at the Crumbley home.
Conversely, James Crumbley had two smaller guns in a small gun safe in the house, Oakland County sheriff’s detective Adam Stoyek told the jury.
Stoyek testified on the fourth day of trial in suburban Detroit. Prosecutors have been trying to show that the father was grossly negligent in how he took care of a gun that was secretly toted to school by his son.
James Crumbley’s attorney has argued that he was not aware that Ethan had access.
Stoyek said James Crumbley was cooperative while in a patrol car in the aftermath of the tragedy. He told the investigator about other guns in the house, including a BB gun, while a video camera recorded them.
“It’s unloaded but it looks like a freakin’ assault rifle. Don’t freak out when you see that,” James Crumbley said in the video played in court.
The jury also saw photos of Ethan’s messy bedroom, which had targets from the shooting range displayed on the wall.
The Crumbleys are the first U.S. parents to be charged with having criminal responsibility for a mass school shooting committed by a child. Jennifer Crumbley was found guilty of the same involuntary manslaughter charges last month.
Ethan, now 17, is serving a life prison sentence for murder and terrorism.
He told a judge when he pleaded guilty that the gun was “not locked” when he stuffed it in his backpack before school.
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