In the moments following the deadly school shooting allegedly carried out by 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, his mother’s primary concern was losing her job, her supervisor said in court on Tuesday.
“Ethan did it,” Jennifer Crumbley allegedly wrote in a text message shortly after gunfire erupted at Michigan’s Oxford High School on Nov. 30. “I need my job,” she pleaded in a second text. “Please don’t judge me for what my son did.”
The revelation came from Andrew Smith, COO of the real estate firm where Jennifer was employed as a marketing director.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I was surprised she was worried about her job at that time,” Smith testified, emphasizing that he thought she would have been more concerned about the four students fatally shot that day.
Jennifer and James Crumbley appeared in court Tuesday morning for a pre-trial hearing in Rochester Hills to determine if there is enough evidence to charge the couple with involuntary manslaughter for Ethan’s alleged actions. The two are accused of providing the gun used in the shooting spree, gifting it to Ethan as an early Christmas present. Their lawyers contend the Crumbleys did not know that Ethan was planning a murder spree, and Judge Julie Nicholson must now determine if there is sufficient evidence to bring the parents to trial.
In the opening minutes of the hearing, defense attorney Mariell Lehman asked for more time to review the evidence against the couple, saying that it had been markedly more difficult to communicate with the imprisoned Crumbleys due to the pandemic. Nicholson denied her request, indicating the trial would proceed.
After the prosecution asked Nicholson to order the pair to cease communicating across the courtroom, the judge agreed, specifically barring the Crumbleys from blowing kisses at one another. “It’s disrespectful, and it’s disruptive,” she told them, according to the Associated Press.
Smith said Jennifer had texted him the morning of the attack, saying she had a meeting scheduled at Ethan’s school and would be late. A teacher had become alarmed over violent drawings the sophomore had scrawled on a math test, and school administrators wanted to meet with her and James, Jennifer told Smith, attaching a photo of the disturbing content.
Jennifer got to work around noon, Smith testified. At 12:51 p.m., Ethan emerged from a bathroom at Oxford High and began “methodically and deliberately” mowing down students as he walked down a hallway, according to prosecutors. A short time later, Smith said he heard Jennifer screaming.
“I heard her say there was an active shooter at school and she had to go,” Smith said.
Jennifer quickly left the office, texting Smith at 1:30 p.m. with the message, “The gun is gone, so are the bullets.”
“Omg Andy, he’s going to kill himself,” she texted Smith in another message. “He must be the shooter.”
The day’s first witness, Kira Pennock, owns a horse farm where Jennifer boarded her animals. Jennifer had been drinking when she bought a horse for $5,000 last year, Pennock testified.
On the morning of the shooting, Pennock said Jennifer sent her a screenshot of Ethan’s troubling drawing, as well. After the bloody attack, Pennock said she had a feeling that Ethan was the culprit.
“I know they own guns and go out shooting, and that math test with everything written on it made me think it was him,” she testified.
Pennock said Jennifer later texted a note similar to the one she sent to Smith, thanking her for “not judging her.”
“[M]y son ruined so many lives today,” Jennifer wrote, according to Pennock, who said Jennifer subsequently texted again, saying she needed to “sell her horses, stat.”
