Jennifer Crumbley doesn't want video of Oxford school shooting shown at her trial
(CBS DETROIT) - Jennifer Crumbley wants to keep jurors from seeing the video from the Oxford school shooting during her trial, claiming it would be irrelevant and too prejudicial.
In a motion filed on Monday, Jan. 9, Crumbley's attorney, Shannon Smith, claims that the defense did not know the prosecution planned on showing surveillance video from the shooting carried out by her son on Nov. 30, 2021.
According to the court documents, they thought the video that would be shown would be of James and Jennifer Crumbley arriving to meet with Oxford High School officials and their son at 10:37 a.m., before the shooting, and leaving the school after the meeting ended at 10:56 a.m.
"This video is very clearly relevant to the parents' cases as it includes footage of the parents and shows their whereabouts and timing," the filing said. "At trial, the meeting the Crumbleys had with the shooter and the school counselor will be highly relevant as the prosecution points to several actions and inactions of the parents during that specific meeting."
On Friday, Jan. 5, Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews denied the request to exclude the surveillance video, saying the use of the video has been known to the defendant since at least March 1, 2022.
Smith claims Crumbley will be deprived of her constitutional rights if the court does not hear the issue of including the shooting video.
"The Court can take judicial notice of the number of motions that the defense has filed on nearly every topic, seeking the exclusion of several different possible pieces of evidence at trial," according to the filing. "Clearly, one of the most prejudicial and inflammatory pieces of evidence would be the footage of the shooting. The defense absolutely misunderstood the prosecution's intention about what video it would play from 11/30/21."
So, Smith is requesting for Matthews to reconsider the decision, and said they believe it is appropriate where the party shows, "a palpable error by which the court and the parties have been misled and show that a different disposition of the motion must result from correction of error," the filing said.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents to be charged in a school shooting. They are scheduled to appear in court for separate trials later this month.
In December, the shooter was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
