Prosecution fights Jennifer Crumbley's attempt to use son's psychiatric records in trial

As it's about to wrap up its historic case, the prosecution in the Jennifer Crumbley trial is fighting to keep the defense from introducing confidential medical information about the defendant's school-shooter son, maintaining: "the privileged material simply does not say what the defense wishes it did."

Specifically, the lawyer for the Oxford school shooter's mom wants to challenge text messages that Ethan Crumbley sent a friend in which he stated he was hallucinating, paranoid and couldn't get his parents to act on his pleas for mental health help. The defense argues that when the shooter was texting his friend about hallucinating, he was watching horror movies. The defense also wants to show that he told a psychiatrist that he lied when he told his friend that his parents were ignoring his pleas for help, according to court records.

Watch live: Prosecution testimony continues in Jennifer Crumbley trial

The defense maintains the jury needs to hear that, but the prosecution disagrees, and is fighting to keep certain witnesses from testifying at trial.

Defense attorney Shannon Smith has asked the judge to compel two psychiatrists who spoke with the shooter to testify at Jennifer Crumbley's trial, and to let the defense introduce contents of interviews the shooter had with those psychiatrists.

The prosecution's spin on the texts

But the prosecution, in its latest filing, argues there is no legal justification to do that.

"The information in question is privileged. The privilege belongs to (the mother's) son, and he is not willing to waive the privilege," Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast wrote in a filing Wednesday, the same day he said he expected the prosecution to rest its case.

Keast added: "The texts make clear to the (mom) that her son was in crisis and needed help. He texted (his mom) that he was seeing demons and things flying off shelves."

Keast also challenged the defense's attempt to criticize the prosecution for claiming in the shooter's case that he was not mentally ill, yet claiming just the opposite in the mother's case. Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to murdering four students and injuring six students and a teacher, and has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

At the end of the day, Keast wrote, "He was in crisis. He wrote things like, 'I have zero HELP for my mental problems and it's causing me to shoot up the f------ school."

Keast urged Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews not to let the shooter's confidential medical records be admitted at trial nor allow the testimony of two psychiatrists.

As for the text messages that Jennifer Crumbley's lawyer has issues with, Keast wrote: "The evidence is offered to show that he was asking his parents for help, and that there were clear warning signs that he was in crisis."

Defense: Mom didn't know about texts about seeking help

The defense has argued that Jennifer Crumbley never saw the texts that her son was sending a friend late at night, nor did she see or know about his journal, in which the shooter wrote that he had "zero HELP" for his mental health problems.

The defense argues that it's unfair to introduce this evidence without giving the defendant an opportunity to rebut it. Moreover, Jennifer Crumbley has maintained that what her son said in text messages "was not true," and it's her right as a defendant to be able to challenge them.

Jennifer Crumbley, along with her husband, James, is charged with involuntary manslaughter for buying her son the gun that he used in the 2021 deadly Oxford High School shooting, and for never disclosing that information to school officials when they had the chance. Prosecutors are seeking to hold the Crumbleys responsible for the deaths of four students killed in the massacre.

James Crumbley goes to trial in March.

The Crumbleys have maintained they had no way of knowing their son was going to shoot up his school, and that the gun at issue was properly secured in their home. Evidence in the mother's trial has shown that the gun was in an armoire. The bullets were hidden under a pair of jeans in a separate location.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Prosecution fights Jennifer Crumbley attempt to use son's records