Prosecutor asks Jennifer Crumbley to explain: Why didn't you bring your son home?

In a terse yet tense exchange that concluded his cross-examination, the prosecutor in the historic school shooting case of Jennifer Crumbley sought to leave jurors with this final image: A mother had the power to be with her son on the afternoon of the massacre at Oxford High School, yet chose to leave him at school.

“On November the 30th of 2021 at 12:51 p.m., you could have been with him,” Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast told Crumbley, referring to the time her son emerged from a bathroom and started firing gunshots at Oxford High School.

“I could have, yes,” she said.

“And you didn’t,” Keast said.

No, she answered.

During his nearly one-hour cross-examination of the embattled mother, Keast sought to drive home the prosecution's long-held contention that the deaths of four students, killed by Ethan Crumbley, could have been prevented if she had acted differently. More specifically, the prosecution alleges Crumbley and her husband engaged in gross negligence by giving their troubled son access to a gun, and then never reporting that gun to the school when given the opportunity.

Jennifer and James Crumbley, who are the first parents in America charged in a mass school shooting, are facing involuntary manslaughter charges for their alleged roles in the shooting. The husband goes to trial in March. Their son, Ethan Crumbley, pleaded guilty to murdering four classmates and injuring seven other people, and has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Was she a helicopter parent or a preoccupied swinger?

During his cross-examination of Crumbley, Keast sought to challenge the mother's testimony that she was a "helicopter" and "hypervigilant" parent who was very involved in her child's life, never saw signs that he was mentally ill — though he had anxiety over grades — and that she never believed he was a threat to anyone else.

Keast also asked about her affair with a man who testified earlier in the week, and tried to get her to answer questions about using a swingers app while cheating on her husband — though that line of questioning got cut off. Those and other questions were intended to show that she spent large amounts of time on personal interests to the detriment of her parenting.

Keast started his cross-examination stating: "Mrs. Crumbley, I'd like to talk to you about your vigilance as a parent."

He asked her about her horses and whether she spent more than $20,000 in one year alone on the horses.

Probably, she said.

When he asked whether her son shared in the horse hobby, she said he didn't like horses.

He then asked her about ski patrol. She said she worked double shifts on Saturdays. During her direct examination questioning from defense attorney Shannon Smith on Thursday, Crumbley said being on ski patrol enabled her son and husband to ski for free.

Keast also asked her about her affair with Brian Meloche, which Crumbley had testified involved once-weekly meetings in a Costco parking lot.

"It wasn't just during the week, Monday through Friday, was it?" Keast asked.

"No," she said, conceding he joined her on some business trips.

He then asked her about an app on her phone called AdultFriendFinder.

'We didn't just hand him a gun'

He cited messages from her in 2021 and asked whether she and her ex-lover arranged to be with other people, arguing that Crumbley took time to set up meets with others.

She said it didn't take that much time.

Keast then asked her about text messages in which her son said he was seeing demons throwing bowls, and asking her to text him back.

Crumbley previously testified that her son was just "messing around" in those texts and long joked about ghosts being in the house, even naming house ghosts "Victoria" and "Boris Johnson."

Keast then asked her about the gun that she and her husband "gifted their son."

"Describe gifted," she said, maintaining the gun was to be used by her son only at a shooting range with his dad and that shooting guns was a family hobby.

"We didn't just hand him a gun, as a 'here you go son,' " she testified.

Keast also questioned Jennifer Crumbley about the troubling drawing her son had made in math class on the morning of the shooting, the one in which he drew a picture of a gun, a bleeding person and the words, "The Thoughts Won't stop help me"

'It just looked like a gun to me'

Keast’s questions were intended to show that the Crumbleys were alarmed by the note even though the Crumbleys would soon decide to leave their son in school that day, and did not disclose to school officials that they had gifted him a gun. To prove involuntary manslaughter, the prosecution must show a "reasonable foreseeability" by the parents that their son would carry out a school shooting, given what they knew about him.

Keast asked her about the gun depicted in the drawing, noting that other witnesses said it closely resembled the 9mm Sig Sauer that James Crumbley purchased days before the shooting.

“It just looked like a gun to me,” the mother said.

What about reading "The Thoughts Won't stop, Help me?" Keast asked.

She testified that was concerning to her.

Later in Jennifer Crumbley’s testimony, Keast asked why she never told school officials about the gun. "I didn't think it was relevant," she testified.

Jennifer Crumbley testified on Thursday that she never saw any signs that her son would commit a school shooting. She said he had no disciplinary issues, had never been in trouble at school and led a pretty normal family life, going on vacations, camping, hiking, and fishing or playing board games with his best friend, who also went on family trips with the Crumbleys.

As for why the Crumbleys left their son in school the morning they were summoned over the troubling drawing, Jennifer Crumbley testified that school officials gave her son the option of staying in school or going home, and told the family their son posed no safety risk to the school. Her son wanted to stay in school, she said, so the parents left him there and returned to their jobs.

School officials have corroborated this narrative, though they have said they thought the parents would take him home, only that didn't happen. Rather, the officials testified, the Crumbleys said they needed to return to their jobs, and vowed to get him help within 48 hours, so the school thought it was in the teen's best interest to stay in class.

Crumbley testified that she never "refused" to bring him home and that if he wanted to go home she would have taken him.

Keast also questioned Jennifer Crumbley about the purchase of the 9mm gun by James Crumbley, who went to the firearms store with their son on Nov. 26, 2021. Jennifer Crumbley said she didn’t know they were going to the gun store that day; that she left responsibility for the gun with her husband.

Keast also asked Jennifer Crumbley whether her son had a consistent desire to obtain a weapon and she said she knew that her son and husband consistently talked about it.

Crumbley said she did not go along on Nov. 26, 2021, when her husband and son went to the firearms store and bought the 9mm gun that was ultimately used in the school shooting.

“I did not know they were going to the gun store that day, no,” she testified.

She did go to the gun range with her son after the purchase, and she agreed that he knew how to use a gun.

“In fact, he showed you how to use the gun,” Keast said. She agreed.

The prosecutor also questioned Jennifer Crumbley about not trusting her husband, saying messages between them showed she didn’t trust him about things like getting out of bed on time or updating her about his whereabouts. Keast said she didn’t trust him to hold down a job, to which she responded that her husband “had a hard time holding down one after COVID.” She agreed that in the messages she is often asking James about work and what he’s doing to obtain a job.

“But this is the person you entrusted with a deadly weapon,” Keast said.

“I did,” she said.

What Jennifer Crumbley talked about in jail phone calls

Keast said he wanted to talk with Jennifer Crumbley about her priorities from the time she was arrested. Jennifer Crumbley has been jailed since she was arrested. Keast said her phone calls were recorded.

Keast said, “Your priority on your first phone call,” on Dec. 4, 2021, was her animals and cash. Crumbley didn’t deny that.

“Do you deny that it wasn’t until 10 days later and 14 calls later that you even mentioned your son?” Keast said.

Jennifer Crumbley said she “was under the impression that I couldn’t mention him because I could get flagged at the jail.” She agreed she mentioned him in later conversations and Keast cited a later call where she said he “just needs to man up.” Jennifer Crumbley said she didn’t remember that, but “it sounds like something I would say.”

Prosecutors played audio from calls between Jennifer Crumbley and her father in which she discusses setting up a GoFundMe to pay for the board of her horses.

Keast then asked her about her actions after learning she was going to be charged, including a text she sent to her lover:

"We're F-----."

Correct, Crumbley said matter of factly, showing no emotion as she answered the prosecutor's questions.

The night of the Crumbleys' arrest

Keast asked about the four Xanax that Crumbley said she took the night before she and her husband were arrested, and her testimony that she and her husband were asleep when officers showed up with guns drawn.

Crumbley said that's what happened.

Keast challenged her testimony, citing text messages from their lawyers: "When you can, we would like for you to call us."

She responded: "Thank you. Shannon is calling you shortly."

Smith texted her that she and another lawyer were coming to get the Crumbleys the following morning to take them to court for arraignment.

"Okay, we'll be waiting," she texted her lawyer that night.

Jennifer Crumbley said her husband's prepaid phone had broken and they were both using the same phone at that point.

A text sent at 11:14 p.m. read: "Think we were found … We might have been found. Laying low."

Smith responded: "Oh shit."

Smith has maintained that her client was not on the run, but was planning on turning herself in the following morning, and that her client had set her cellphone alarm for 6 a.m. the following morning to wake up for her arraignment.

Jurors saw images of her cellphone alarm set at that time.

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

Contact Gina Kaufman: gkaufman@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @ReporterGina.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jennifer Crumbley grilled by prosecution on affair, horses, son's texts