James Crumbley, father of Michigan school shooter, fights to keep son's diary, texts out of trial

After the first-of-its-kind conviction of Jennifer Crumbley, found guilty last month of involuntary manslaughter for a mass school shooting committed by her son, her husband's legal team is fighting to block some of the testimony that helped convict her ahead of his own trial for the same charges.

With his trial just two weeks away, James Crumbley is asking a judge to block jurors from hearing any testimony or evidence involving his teenage son's mental health, journal or text messages he sent to a friend and his mother several months before the boy shot up Oxford High School.

Jennifer Crumbley was convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of four students murdered by her son, Ethan Crumbley, at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021: Tate Myre, 16, Hana St. Juliana, 14, Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17. Six more students and a teacher also were wounded in the rampage.

James Crumbley now faces the same potential fate as his wife, as he goes to trial March 5 on identical charges for buying his son the gun the teen used in the massacre and for not disclosing that information to school officials when given the opportunity.

His lawyer, meanwhile, is fighting to keep out evidence that legal experts have argued should never have been allowed at the wife's trial − specifically the shooter's journal and text messages he sent to a friend, in which he claimed his parents ignored his mental health troubles.

The shooter won't testify, so the defense can't question his messages

James Crumbley's lawyer is working against time to keep out evidence that she believes could unfairly hurt her client. In a Tuesday filing, defense attorney Mariell Lehman challenged the admissibility of the shooter's texts and journal, arguing it is wrong to let jurors see these excerpts if the defense cannot challenge them because the shooter has refused to testify.

The shooter has a right not to testify. But it means that the defense can't challenge what the boy wrote to his friend or in his journal, including this claim: "I have zero help for my mental problems and it's causing me to shoot up the f------ school.”

The jury foreperson in Jennifer Crumbley's trial noted in media interviews that the teen's journal "played a huge part" during deliberations.

Multiple legal experts have argued that the shooter's journal and text messages are grounds for overturning the mother's conviction.

Lehman argued that James Crumbley has a constitutional right to confront his accuser − in this case, his son.

James Crumbley not only never saw his son's journal and texts, Lehman said, but was never aware of the claims the boy was making.

"As someone accused of multiple crimes, Mr. Crumbley has a right to confrontation which is granted by the United States and Michigan Constitutions," Lehman wrote in her latest filing. "Admitting evidence, without Mr. Crumbley having the opportunity to cross-examine the writer, violates his constitutional rights to due process, confrontation, and to present a full and complete defense."

Defense wants to admit some medical records of shooter

The shooter, who was 15 at the time of the massacre, pleaded guilty to all his crimes last year and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. His parents, who were charged just days after the shooting, had planned on calling him as a witness in their trials. But on the eve of his mother's trial, the shooter's new attorneys disclosed that he would be invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The shooter not testifying hamstrings the defense's ability to challenge the boy's claims that his parents ignored his mental health troubles, laughed at him and told him to "suck it up."

But Lehman is urging the judge to let her admit as evidence information that was discovered in December in a box of confidential medical records involving the shooter.

According to court documents, the Crumbleys' son allegedly told a psychiatrist that he lied in a text to his friend when he stated that he asked his parents for help and that they ignored him. The jury in Jennifer Crumbley’s trial never got to hear that because the judge didn't let it in, concluding it was confidential medical information that belongs only to the shooter, and that the shooter invoked privilege over those protected documents. The jury did hear the text messages to the friend, however.

The Jennifer Crumbley jury also never heard that the shooter told a psychiatrist that when he was texting a friend that he was hallucinating, he was watching horror movies at the time, according to testimony from the shooter's case. Nor did the jury see a journal excerpt in which the shooter wrote he had to find where his dad hid the gun.

Storage of the gun is a key issue in this case, as the prosecution has argued the Crumbleys gave their son easy access to a gun that he used to kill people, while the Crumbleys maintain the gun at issue was hidden in an armoire, unloaded, and that the bullets were in a separate drawer hidden under some jeans. They also say their son was only allowed to use the gun at shooting ranges with his parents.

Defense is trying to change the judge's mind

The journal entries have become a sticking point for Lehman, who argued in a filing that admitting some portions of the journal but not others violates James Crumbley's rights and will "mislead the jury."

Lehman also said that if damning information is put before the jury about her client, then she should have a right to refute it with information she believes can do just that. Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews has previously ruled that the shooter's medical records are off-limits, but Lehman is trying to change her mind.

Lehman also wants to exclude from trial text messages the shooter sent his mom eight months before the shooting, when he texted her about hallucinating and seeing demons throw bowls around the house. At her trial, Jennifer Crumbley testified that those texts were part of a family joke in which her son and husband pretended there were ghosts in the house, and that she didn't respond right away because he was "messing with us."

Lehman said the texts with the mother have nothing to do with her client, and shouldn't be admitted at trial.

"If the court is inclined to allow portions of the journal ... texts between the shooter and his friend, and texts between the shooter and his mother, despite there being no evidence that Mr. Crumbley was aware of any of them, then the court must also allow the defense to cross-examine witnesses with information learned from the protected records received in December 2023," Lehman wrote.

More: James Crumbley may come off as more sympathetic than his wife. But is it enough?

Prosecutors have long argued that the Crumbleys, more than anyone else, could have prevented the massacre had they disclosed to school officials that their son had access to a gun when they were summoned over a troubling drawing he had made on the morning of the shooting. On his geometry worksheet, the shooter had drawn a picture of a gun, a bleeding human body, and the words, "The thoughts won't stop. Help me."

The parents never disclosed to school officials that just days earlier, they had gifted their son a gun. School officials determined the boy was sad, but not a threat to the school, and allowed him to return to class, concluding he would be better off with peers than home alone. His parents returned to their jobs.

Two hours later, he fired his first shot.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: James Crumbley fights to keep son's journal and texts out of trial