Oxford High School shooter asked his parents for help appealing his sentence. They said no.
A Michigan judge on Wednesday denied the Oxford High School shooter's request for his parents' pre-sentence investigation reports to help him appeal his life without parole sentence, siding with the convicted killer's parents.
The shooter was sentenced in December after pleading guilty to gunning down four classmates and wounding six others and a teacher in 2021. He was 15 at the time, but has since turned 18.
His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were each sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison earlier in April following manslaughter convictions in February and March. The Crumbleys have since been appointed their own appellant attorneys.
As part of the appeal of his sentence, the shooter asked a state court for the confidential pre-sentence reports used in the trial of his parents, arguing his family and home environment are relevant to his appeal.
On Wednesday, Oakland County Circuit Judge Cheryl Matthews sided with the parents and denied the request for the pre-sentence reports, according to Ashley Williams, a member of Matthews' legal staff.
The sentencing court was required to consider his family background, including his home environment because he was a minor at the time of the offenses. In response, prosecutors did not take a position on the matter and noted the parents' pre-sentence reports were not created until months after the shooter was sentenced.
Alona Sharon, an attorney for James Crumbley, wrote in response to the motion that the shooter is "able-bodied" and "capable of advising his counsel about his childhood, his parents and his home environment. Counsel has failed to explain to this Honorable Court why they cannot learn this evidence from him directly."
An attorney for Jennifer Crumbley wrote in a court filing that the documents are "privileged and confidential" and she had "not waived her statutory privilege allowing the disclosure of her pre-sentence report."
Jennifer Crumbley's attorney wrote that in a bid to show that her son's trial counsel was ineffective, the shooter "is simply attempting to engage in a fishing expedition for information that (he) hopes will prove helpful."
Her attorney wrote he should be able to provide his attorney with any information about his "family and home environment" that may be relevant under the law.
The Crumbleys are the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their children as the nation continues to grapple with the scourge of gunfire on campuses.
The shooter was sentenced last year after pleading guilty to terrorism causing death, four counts of murder and 19 other related charges. He did not testify in his parents' trials.
He admitted in court that on Nov. 30, 2021, he took a gun from an unlocked container in his home, hid it in his backpack and took it out in a bathroom before opening fire on his schoolmates. He killed Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Justin Shilling, 17; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Tate Myre, 16.
He was previously housed in a special unit for inmates under 18 at the Thumb Correctional Facility but has since been transported to the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee, an all-male prison, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
At the parents' trials, prosecutors used testimony from shooting survivors, police investigators and school employees to show James and Jennifer Crumbley were "grossly negligent" in allowing their teenage son to have access to the gun and ignoring signs of his spiraling mental health.
In pre-sentence investigation reports included in the prosecution's sentencing memos, the parents continued to defend their actions.
"I am wrongly accused, and now wrongly convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter. My actions were that of any other parent," James Crumbley wrote. He also said he "had no knowledge of what (my son) was going to do, or presented with ANY warning signs," and he defended his gun safety efforts. "I followed the law and took gun safety to the point as needed."
In her report, Jennifer Crumbley sought to clarify her testimony, saying she would not have done anything differently.
"With the information I have now, of course my answer would be hugely different. There are so many things that I would change if I could go back in time," she said. "I never imagined he would hurt other people in the way that he did."
