Watch replay: First day of testimony in Jennifer Crumbley Oxford school shooting trial

The historic case of Jennifer Crumbley, the first parent in America to be charged and tried in a mass school shooting, began in earnest Thursday with opening statements and testimony after a jury was seated Wednesday.

The most surprising development in opening statements was Crumbley's defense attorney saying the mother will testify in her own defense later in the trial. The court also had to take a recess after Crumbley broke down in tears upon seeing video footage from her son's rampage in the 2021 Oxford High School shooting.

The panel of 12 jurors and five alternates includes 10 women and seven men, most of them parents, including multiple gun owners and hunters. The jurors will be tasked with determining whether Crumbley is responsible for the deaths of four students killed by her son.

Watch the trial here.

Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast began his opening statement by introducing the jury to the victims, Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17.

Jennifer Crumbley and her husband, James, who goes on trial in March, are charged with involuntary manslaughter in their son Ethan's rampage at Oxford High on Nov. 30, 2021. He has pleaded guilty to killing four students and injuring seven other people, and is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His parents are the first in America to be tried in a mass school shooting.

Prosecutor, defense attorney continue heated exchanges

After an angry exchange in the morning, sparks continued to fly in the courtroom Thursday afternoon as the defense lawyer and the prosecutor kept butting heads over testimony, shouting at times.

Tempers flared during testimony of Brett Brandon, an Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald asked him to explain how the gun used in the school shooting was deadlier than the other guns owned by the shooter's father.

According to the agent's testimony and that of a gun store manager, James Crumbley purchased three guns in the year of the shooting: the one he gifted to his son, and two others in the months before that.

But those two guns, McDonald asked the witness to explain, could not fire as many bullets as the murder weapon.

At this point Jennifer Crumbley's lawyer objected to the prosecution's line of questioning, arguing, "There's no way this prosecutor can prove that this gun was bought to kill people ... there's no way that my client knows anything about the deadly capability of this gun," Shannon Smith said.

The judge concluded the prosecutor was being argumentative, so McDonald moved on — though said she would prove later why the questioning was relevant.

More controversy followed, involving the federal agent's testimony about gun cases and a gun safe found in the Crumbley home. He said there wasn’t much wear and tear on the cable lock, which is used to disable a gun to prevent it from firing.

“It looks almost new,” he said of the lock.

A gun safe in the house, which held two other guns that James Crumbley had purchased in June 2021, had its lock code set at 0-0-0, Brandon testified.

During Brandon's testimony, jurors saw multiple videos of the Crumbley family's outings to shooting ranges, and videos of Ethan Crumbley firing a gun at those ranges. The videos were taken by James Crumbley and sent to his wife via Facebook Messenger.

Jurors also saw a video that the shooter took of himself in the family home, loading a magazine into a gun, then chambering a round. He texted the video to a friend, and wrote: "My dad left it out. So I thought why not."

The mother's lawyer objected to the video, arguing it did not show anyone getting hurt, offered no proof that anyone was hurt, nor that the teenager was home alone — which he wasn't.

According to the agent's testimony, both parents were home when their son made this video.

Jurors also saw an Instagram post of the shooter holding his new gun, stating: "Just got my new beauty today. SIG SAUER 9mm. 😍 Ask any questions I will answer."

The prosecution is using the videos in an effort to show that Jennifer Crumbley knew her son was fascinated with guns and that she supported his hobby, bragged about it on social media and took part in it. This testimony is meant to help bolster the prosecution's claim that the Crumbleys ignored their son's mental health troubles, but fed his obsession with guns instead.

The defense has previously argued in court documents that there is nothing illegal about parents going to a shooting range with their child, that many families in the community engage in such activities, that this was a family hobby that brought them together, and that the parents never thought or knew their son would ever shoot someone.

Gun store manager tells about Crumbley purchase on Nov. 26, 2021

Cammy Back, the office manager at a store that sells firearms, testified that when she sold a gun to James Crumbley on Nov. 26, 2021, he was with a teenager, who she later learned was Ethan Crumbley.

Asked if a gun would be sold to a 15-year-old who walked into the store, Back said: “Absolutely not.”

Under questioning by the defense attorney Smith, Back testified that Jennifer Crumbley’s name is not the receipt or a required federal form.

Back testified to the process customers follow when they buy a firearm. She said they must provide an ID, fill out a federal firearms form and undergo a background check. Sometimes it takes only seconds, or up to 30 minutes.

“As long as they pass the background check” a customer can walk out with a gun the same day, Back testified, noting that the store provides gun locks.

If issues crop up in a person’s background, the sale can be delayed or denied, Back said. She testified that James Crumbley also bought two other guns from the store in June 2021 and that on those occasions there were slight delays because of the background checks.

Prosecutors showed receipts and federal forms filled out by James Crumbley listing himself as the buyer in each instance. That includes the purchase of a 9mm Sig Sauer SP2022, which he bought Nov. 26, 2021 for $519.35 and was later used by his son in the school shooting.

Back said when James Crumbley came into the store in November 2021, he “went right to that gun.”

On cross-examination, the defense asked if it’s common for parents to bring a child to a gun shop.

Back said yes.

The defense then asked if there’s anything illegal about a minor being in a gun store, and whether the store has a sign on the front that says no monitors allowed.

Back testified no.

Oxford High teacher who was shot is first witness

Teacher Molly Darnell told jurors how she was in her classroom on the day of the shooting and heard students screaming in the hallway. She saw students running out of the school.

"I heard three things quickly together," Darnell said, her voice shaking. "They were the sound of like three loud pops that I could have mistaken for lockers closing."

The principal came over the PA and said the school was going into lockdown. Her door was still open, so she moved to shut her door.

"I immediately pull it shut," she said, noting she then tried to install a night lock, but in her peripheral vision, through a glass partition, she saw someone dressed in dark, oversized clothing.

"I locked eyes with him," she said, struggling to maintain composure. "I realize he's raising a gun to me."

"I moved away from the door ... I jumped to the side."

She felt a burn like hot water in her left arm. She then turned around and saw a bullet hole through her office window.

"It seems really silly," she said, crying, "that I couldn't wrap my head around what was happening."

She then crawled on her hands on her knees, installed the night lock and barricaded the door with a rolling cart.

"The only thing I could think was he's gonna come back and finish what he wanted to do," Darnell said, noting she then crouched down behind a cabinet.

Then she texted her husband: "I love you. Active shooter."

She started feeling blood dripping down her arm, but it didn't register that she had been shot until she saw a hole in her cardigan.

She stood and showed the jury where in her arm the bullet struck. She told jurors how she put a tourniquet on her arm. Her daughter texted her from a neighboring school district.

"Mom, are you OK?"

I responded: "I love you. I'm sheltered in place."

She did not tell her daughter that she had been shot.

She was locked down for about 20 minutes, texting with other staff at the school, but not telling them that she had been shot. She said she didn't want to cause panic.

She heard a volume of footsteps. She texted a teacher next door: "Hey, you're the only one who knows right now, but I've been shot. I hope I'm the only one."

The teacher next door said, "Oh my gosh, I'm calling the office."

A school official knocked at her door, "Are you OK?"

Through tears, she said, "I didn't trust that it was him at my door."

Then police came knocking and said, "Are you in here? Are you injured?"

She opened the door from her knees. The officers scooped her up.

During this point in her testimony, the prosecutor showed the jury surveillance footage from inside Oxford High School. It was the scene of the hallway outside Darnell's classroom.

The defense did not cross-examine her.

Parents of two of the victims sat expressionless in the courtroom during the testimony, which they heard over the summer during a hearing to determine whether Ethan Crumbley was eligible as a juvenile to be sentenced to life without parole. Those attending trial are Craig Shilling, whose son, Justin, was killed in a bathroom execution style; and Steve St. Juliana, whose daughter, Hana, also was killed.

Assistant principal testifies

The second witness was Oxford High School assistant principal Kristy Gibson-Marshall, who confronted the gunman during his rampage and tried to save the life of one of the victims who was shot in the head in the hallway, but did not survive.

Gibson-Marshall was helping in the cafeteria when the shooting happened. She recalled seeing students running and laughing, not knowing something was going on. But then the faces she saw coming down the hall appeared more serious, so she got on her radio and reported something was happening.

Then came the alert. She was supposed to go into lockdown. Instead, she went down a hallway. She smelled what she thought was cap gun. But then she heard two gunshots, and walked toward them.

She entered a hallway.

"I saw a student lying on the ground. His face was covered ... I could see another student walking in my direction. His arm was up."

So she ventured toward the student walking toward her. It was the Ethan Crumbley. She recognized him.

"When he got close enough to me ... I asked if he was OK. It just didn't seem right that it would be him ... I didn't think it was possible that he was the shooter."

"I said what's going on? ... He didn't respond."

The shooter never aimed his gun at her, she said, but she got on her radio and reported seeing him and a victim.

Then she went back to the boy on the ground.

It was Tate Myre, she told the jury, choking up. She stayed with Tate until help arrived.

The prosecution then showed a video of the shooting, prompting the defendant to break down in tears.

More: Meet Jennifer Crumbley's jurors: Several gun owners, mostly women

Prosecution's opening argument

Keast flashed the victims' pictures on a large screen, and stated their names.

"They weren’t in a car crash. They weren’t sick. They were murdered in an act of terror" by the defendant's son, Keast said. "Jennifer Crumbley didn't pull the trigger that day, but she is responsible for their deaths."

Keast told jurors how the day after her son walked out of the store with his new gun, Jennifer Crumbley made a social media post about how she went to the shooting range with her son, and that the gun was her son's early Christmas present.

Keast said the evidence will prove that on the day of the shooting, she was “given the opportunity to prevent these murders from ever happening. Instead, she chose to do nothing.”

He told jurors the parents were cold when they were called into the school on the morning of the shooting, when they were shown a drawing of a gun on a math sheet.

Keast said she was sent the drawing by a school counselor who requested a meeting with her at the school that day.

“Apparently, that raised an alarm with Jennifer Crumbley,” Keast said.

Before going the meeting, he said, Jennifer Crumbley communicated her concern to her husband in messages on Facebook. She wrote to James Crumbley: “Emergency” on the morning of Nov. 30, 2021, and sent him the picture.

Her husband responded: “My god, WTF.”

Jennifer Crumbley also wrote: “He said he was distraught about last night” and “I’m very concerned headed to his school.”

The couple went to the school. Keast said school officials expected them to take their son home and set up an appointment with a mental health professional, but they didn’t. Keast said Jennifer Crumbley abruptly ended the meeting after just over 11 minutes.

"They didn't say anything about the fact that that firearm (in the drawing) is identical to the Sig Sauer 9 mm (they had bought him.) They didn't mention anything about how the gun was stored. They didn’t mention anything about his increased mental distress. … They didn't embrace him,” Keast said.“They didn't stop by the house to look for the gun. You’ll learn never once did they ask their son, ‘Where's the gun?'

“They did nothing.”

That's gross negligence, he said.

He said the prosecution will show how senseless the tragedy was, all because Jennifer Crumbley didn't take "small, easy" steps that could have prevented it.

"It's not illegal to be a bad parent," Keast stressed. "We're not here to put a restriction on gun owners ... we're here because when Jennifer looked at this drawing ... she looked at it with context and origin."

That's why she's responsible for these deaths, he said, stressing mutliple times: "She did nothing."

Defense opening statement

Defense attorney Smith began her opening statement by quoting a line in a song by Taylor Swift that says 'Band-aids don't fix bullet holes.'

"That's what this case is about," She said. "It's about the prosecution trying to put a Band-Aid on a problem ... it's an  effort to make the community feel better ... it's  an effort to send a message to gun owners."

"None of those problems will be changed by charging Jennifer Crumbley with involuntary manslaughter," she said.

She went on to say: "The evidence in this case is absolutely horrific. It will make you sick and disgusted, scare you and traumatize you."

She added: "Mrs. Crumbley, myself, everyone in this courtroom agrees, the worst possible thing happened when Ethan Crumbley used a gun and terrorized Oxford High School."

She urged the jury to be mindful that the prosecution's evidence will frighten and alarm, but it's about the shooter, not the mother.

"She didn't have it on her radar in any way that her son would ever take a gun into a school, that her son would shoot people," Smith said. "Jennifer Crumbley did the best she could as a mother to a child who grew up as a teenager, and had no way to know what would happen."

She told jurors that Jennifer Crumbley was the kind of mother who took her son to doctors, like when a suspicious mole appeared, monitored his homework on a website for school parents, and texted her husband repeatedly when their son wasn't home.

"She was a hypervigilant mother who cared about her son more than anything in this world," Smith said.

"She is not a perfect parent. The prosecution has very carefully pulled out a sliver of evidence from a forest of trees to try to convince that there was something wrong with Ethan and that his mom should have known."

Smith said when the mom learned about the violent drawing her son had made of a gun, she "freaked out" and raced to the school.

She met with the counselors, who told her the shooter was of no risk to anyone. "This is not a situation where Jennifer Crumbley refused to take her child to school," Smith said, contending that school officials gave her the option.

When the mom learned there was a shooting at the high school, she immediately became concerned that her son had hurt himself. "In Jennifer Crumbley's mind, she believes that her son has done something stupid," like that he fired a shot in the air, Smith said.

She then became concerned that her son was attempting suicide, and texted him: "Don't do it."

"It still has never crossed her mind that her son would shoot someone," Smith said.

When she saw her son at a police substation, his eyes were black. "It was a son she did not recognize."

About Ethan Crumbley's parents hiding out

Smith also talked about the night the parents left their home and hid out in an art gallery in Detroit. She said they got burner phones because their phones were taken by police. They worked to find lawyers. They don't know what to do. They don't understand what they're being charged with.

They were faced with knowing their "son is gone."

On Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, they learned from a press conference that they were being charged with involuntary manslaughter. Smith said they made plans to turn themselves in on Saturday morning after asking a friend to let them stay in the gallery.

"They were not hiding," Smith said, adding that when police found the parents, they were standing outside their car smoking cigarettes.

"The prosecution has grossly misconstrued facts in this case," she said, telling the jury that it will hear from Jennifer Crumbley later in the trial.

"She will tell you that when she saw the materials in this case, she learned that her son had not been her son for months, that he had been manipulating her, that he had been sending alarming text messages to other people. You will hear that the school never advised Mrs. Crumbley of problematic issues that if she heard about, she would have done something about it."

Smith blasted school officials, stressing repeatedly that the mom was never informed about a lot of concerning behavior.

"This was absolutely not foreseeable. This was absolutely not expected," Smith said.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Oxford school shooting: Watch replay of 1st day of Jennifer Crumbley trial