Andrew Smith, Jennifer Crumbley's boss at real estate company, testifies about text messages
(CBS DETROIT) - The fourth day of the testimony for the trial of Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter, continues, with testimony from her direct supervisor.
Andrew Smith is the chief operating officer of a real estate company where Jennifer Crumbley was employed. She worked as a marketing director for this company, and Smith was her direct supervisor.
The prosecution asked Smith about his conversations with Jennifer Crumbley on Nov. 30, 2021, the day of the shooting.
Jennifer Crumbley had sent Smith a text message at about 10:05 a.m. that day with a photo of the violent drawings on the math assignment and told him that she had to go to the shooter's school to meet with his counselor but would be back by 11:30 or noon.
Smith said he saw Jennifer Crumbley back at the office at noon that day. She told him that she needed to get her son counseling and that she felt like she was failing him.
In addition, Smith said he wouldn't have had a problem with it if Jennifer Crumbley had asked to leave work that day to get her son help.
After that, Smith said he had a meeting with Jennifer and a colleague, and a bit later, he heard yelling coming from outside his office.
Then, Smith saw Jennifer Crumbley running out of the office, and she told him there was an active shooter at her son's school.
He then received another text message from her at about 1:23 p.m. in which she said, "The gun is gone, and so are the bullets," before sending another message that said, "Omg Andy he's going to kill himself he must be the shooter," and I need a lawyer at substation with police."
The prosecution asked him what was going through his mind after receiving this string of messages.
"Shock, fear, sadness; a lot of emotions, we didn't really know what to think."
Later that afternoon, Jennifer Crumbley sent Smith another text, saying, "I need my job. Please don't judge me for what my son did."
Before Smith testified, Nicholas Ejak, the former dean of students at Oxford High School, gave his testimony and said he had no "reasonable suspicion" to search the shooter's backpack the day of the shooting.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection to the Oxford High School shooting in which her son killed four students, Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, and Hana St. Juliana, and injured several other people in the November 2021 shooting.
Her son was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December 2023.