Jennifer Crumbley wants 3 witnesses banned from her trial: Their stories are 'so gruesome'

The embattled mother of convicted Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley wants to block three witnesses from testifying at her upcoming, historic trial, arguing what they saw on Nov. 30, 2021, is "so gruesome and appalling" that it could unfairly prejudice the jury.

But more than that, her lawyer argues, it's irrelevant to the mother's case.

In a new court filing, Jennifer Crumbley is asking a judge to exclude the "excruciatingly painful testimony" of three eyewitnesses who saw and survived the horror of her son's crimes:

• A teacher who locked eyes with the gunman before he opened fire on her, shooting her in the arm, just 6 inches from her heart.

• An assistant principal who gave mouth-to-mouth to a dying teenage boy who had been shot in the back of the head, telling him she loved him and to hang on, though the boy would not make it.

• A student who was stuck in a bathroom with the shooter, frantically texting his family as he heard the gunman shoot his final victim, who was ordered to his knees before being shot execution-style.

'The factual evidence is so devastating, gruesome, and appalling'

"The factual evidence is so devastating, gruesome, and appalling that its admission would certainly inflame the passions of a jury," Jennifer Crumbley's lawyer, Shannon Smith, argues in a Tuesday filing, maintaining the details of the shooting itself should stay out of her client's trial.

That's because, Smith argues, what went on inside the school that day has nothing to do with the elements of the crime that the mother is accused of.

Rather, the defense maintains, the mom's case is about what happened before the shooting, not during or after. It's about how the Crumbleys behaved as parents, whether their actions or inactions led to four children dying, and whether they could have prevented this.

Jennifer and James Crumbley, the first parents in America charged in a mass school shooting, are scheduled to go to trial Jan. 23 on involuntary manslaughter charges for their alleged roles in the deaths of Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16, and Justin Shilling, 17. All were killed by their son, who also injured seven others during the mass shooting, including a teacher.

Prosecutors allege the parents, who will have separate trials, ignored a troubled son who was spiraling out of control, but instead of getting him help they bought him a gun — the same one he used in the massacre. They are also accused of failing to notify school officials about that gun when given the opportunity.

Ethan Crumbley, who pleaded guilty to all his crimes, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole last month, telling the judge to give the victims the justice they want, and that he hopes to be a better person in the future.

Meanwhile, his mother's lawyer argues that if the shooter were going to trial on murder charges, then it would be appropriate for the eyewitnesses to testify about the horror and pain they experienced.

But that's not what's happening, Smith protests.

"The case is unusual considering that the shooter pled guilty as an adult and has been sentenced to life without parole. Mrs. Crumbley clearly did not commit the actual shootings or act of terrorism, and there is no evidence to suggest she knew about any of the specifics of the shooter’s plans. It would be confusing and misleading to have witnesses testify about the details of those events," Smith writes, stressing Jennifer Crumbley does not plan to contest any of the pain or suffering her son caused.

'Mrs. Crumbley is anxious'

"There is no evidence that suggests Mrs. Crumbley had any knowledge of the shooter’s plans, how he planned to execute those plans, and the horrors of the events that unfolded," Smith writes, later noting:

"Mrs. Crumbley is anxious for her upcoming trial … knowing the community and victims deserve whatever semblance of closure conclusion of these legal proceedings can bring."

While it has not yet been decided who will go to trial first — the mom or the dad — lawyers for both parents have long argued that the only issues to be decided in these cases are these:

Were the Crumbleys grossly negligent in contributing to the deaths of four students? And/or, did they have a legal duty to protect others from their son?

The defense says no. The prosecution says yes.

"The duty owed here is to prevent the community from their son intentionally harming somebody when they knew he was preoccupied with violent material, that he had access to a gun, he could use it when he wanted to and he was disturbed," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald has previously argued in court. "It's a parental duty. It goes far beyond careless. It's gross negligence."

The witnesses who have Jennifer Crumbley on edge

While the defense cannot predict what the prosecution's witnesses will say at trial, earlier court proceedings offer some insight, specifically last summer's four-day-long Miller hearing, which ended with the judge concluding that Ethan Crumbley qualified for a life-without-parole sentence, which he ultimately got.

The Free Press covered that hearing. Here is some of the testimony that Jennifer Crumbley wants excluded from her trial:

Assistant Principal Kristy Gibson-Marshall broke down in tears as she recalled how she tried to save Tate Myre’s life in the hallway, where she found him lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the back of his head.

“It was crushing. I had to help him. I had to save him, for his mom,” said Gibson-Marshall, who wept on the stand.

“I just kept talking to him. I told him that I love him, that I needed him to hang with me,” said Gibson-Marshall, whose testimony brought many to tears in the courtroom, including reporters. “He was blue. When I was giving him breaths, he was getting white, so I kept giving him the breaths. It felt like forever.”

Gibson-Marshall stayed with Myre until police and paramedics arrived, and told them to keep giving him breaths.

The blood still haunts her.

“It was all over me,” she said “It took me months to get the taste of blood out of my mouth.”

Gibson-Marshall also encountered Crumbley during his rampage that day. She saw him from a distance. He had a gun and she walked toward him. She realized it was Crumbley, whom she has known since he was in elementary school.

“‘It couldn’t be Ethan. He wouldn’t do that,’“ she recalled thinking.

“And so I talked to him. I said, ‘Are you OK, what’s going on?’ "

Crumbley didn’t respond. He kept walking, so she tended to the student on the ground — Tate Myre.

Gibson-Marshall was in the hallway when Crumbley eventually surrendered after exiting a bathroom, where he shot his final victim.

“He came out with his hands up and he was on his knees,” she said, noting police were trying to figure out who he was. “He didn’t answer. I said, ‘His name is Ethan.’ “

'HELP,' 'GUN,' 'I’M HIDING IN THE BATHROOM'

Oxford student Keegan Gregory was walking down the hallway and stopped to use the bathroom when the shooting started. He didn't believe it was a gun at first, and didn't know what to think until he peeked out and saw people running.

Shocked, he went back into the bathroom, where he encountered Shilling, a student whom he had never met. Gregory entered a stall and squatted on the toilet, noting that Shilling told him to do that so no one would see his feet. Shilling did the same.

Both stayed quiet as they used their phones. Gregory texted his family in a group chat.

“HELP,” “GUN,” “I’M HIDING IN THE BATHROOM,” “OMG.”

Gregory’s dad texted back, telling his son to stay down, stay quiet and stay calm.

“I’m terrified,” Gregory wrote.

At one point, Shilling devised a plan to escape. Gregory testified Shilling mouthed and signaled to him that when they heard gunshots get farther away, they were going to run.

But before they knew it, the shooter was in the bathroom. Gregory alerted his family. His dad told him to stay down and not engage, “We love you.”

Then the shooter kicked in the door of the bathroom stall and “stared at us,” Gregory testified, noting Crumbley then left the stall.

He said he and Shilling weren’t sure if Crumbley was still in the bathroom, so Shilling at first tried to use his phone to look for feet, then bent over and mouthed to Gregory that he was there.

“We just stayed quiet,” he said.

At some point, Gregory testified, the shooter came back into the stall and told Shilling to come out. Gregory said he was still crouching on the toilet and then heard an “extremely loud” shot.

The shooter then came back into the stall and motioned for Gregory to come out, he said.

At some point, Gregory recalled looking at the shooter and saying "Please."

"I was scared,” he said.

"He had the gun at his side. He signaled me to go over by Justin’s body," he recalled.

He saw Justin’s body in a pool of blood around his head — a sight that prompted his next move. He bolted.

"I ran behind his back behind the door," Gregory testified. "I think when I saw his body, I realized that if I stayed, I was gonna die.

"I just kept running as fast as I could," he said. "I couldn't breathe. I was hyperventilating."

'Do you know how hard it is to heal from something like this?'

Teacher Molly Darnell was in her office going about her normal school day when chaos erupted on Nov. 30, 2021. She noticed a rush of students run past her door. At first, she assumed there had been a fight, so she tried to call the office and it went to voicemail. She then ran outside into the hallway and saw students exiting a door.

Then an announcement came over the intercom. The school was headed into a lockdown

Darnell shut her office door and went to get a door security device, which works like a barrier to keep anyone from getting inside. But as she did that, she noticed some movement outside the glass window to one side of her door.

Darnell said she locked eyes with someone in the hallway wearing a mask. She didn't recognize the eyes. But then she saw a gun raising up toward her, and she jumped to the right. She heard three shots.

Then came that burning sensation, like someone scalded her with hot water, and she noticed her cardigan was ripped. She then barricaded the door with a cabinet and security device, crouched behind a filing cabinet and texted her husband: "I love you. Active shooter."

Darnell was shot in her arm that day, just inches from her heart.

“He was aiming to kill me,” testified Darnell, who has since left her job at Oxford High, stressing: "Do you know how hard it is to heal from something like this?"

Jennifer Crumbley's lawyer called all this testimony "obviously monumental."

"It is undeniably unforgettable, sickening, and invokes only the strongest of emotion," Smith writes.

Still, she argues, it's "unfairly prejudicial."

But the prosecution has long argued that the Crumbleys, more than anyone else, could have prevented the massacre had they informed school officials about the gun they had bought their son as an early Christmas present that year, just four days before the shooting.

According to courtroom testimony, the Crumbleys were summoned to the school on the morning before the shooting about a troubling drawing their son had made on a math worksheet. He had drawn a gun, a bleeding body, and the words: "The Thoughts won't stop, help me."

The parents never informed the school that their son had access to a gun. Rather, they promised to get him help in the coming days, and asked whether he could be returned to class because they had to go back to work.

The Crumbleys went back to their jobs. Ethan went back to class.

Two hours later, he emerged from a bathroom and opened fire.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jennifer Crumbley wants 3 school shooting witnesses excluded from her trial