The mother of Ethan Crumbley, the Oxford High School shooter, is requesting a Michigan court to prevent the inclusion of evidence related to her son’s alleged abuse of baby birds in her own criminal trial. Jennifer and her husband, James Crumbley, face four counts of involuntary manslaughter each for their son’s actions in November 2021, where he fatally shot four students and injured seven others at Oxford High at the age of 15.
In a motion filed on Monday, Jennifer Crumbley’s attorney, Shannon Smith, argued that the “bird evidence” is so disturbing that its introduction would unduly influence the jury against her. Smith asserted that Mrs. Crumbley had no knowledge of her son’s heinous acts.
Court filings by prosecutors and attorneys for shooting victims indicate that, in May 2021, Ethan recorded himself torturing and killing animals, including a bird. Allegedly, he severed a bird’s head and kept it in a jar. Additionally, in November 2021, two weeks before the shooting, Ethan brought the severed bird’s head to school, with claims that school staff ignored reports from students who saw it.
According to the prosecutors, in February 2022, Ethan expressed delight in killing a family of baby birds. The defense argues that there is no evidence indicating Jennifer and James Crumbley were aware of their son’s actions against baby birds.
While the court has ruled that certain irrelevant evidence can be excluded from the Crumbleys’ cases, the decision on the bird evidence is pending. Jennifer’s defense is seeking its exclusion, emphasizing that there is no evidence suggesting the parents knew about their son’s crimes against baby birds. The defense contends that the shooter intentionally concealed the bird evidence from his parents, and any proximity they had to it was based on claims from Ethan himself.
Smith argued that while the bird evidence held significance in the shooter’s case, it was not relevant to the cases of his parents. She asserted that unless James and Jennifer were directly involved in activities such as shooting, collecting, torturing, or preserving dead birds, or had knowledge of their son engaging in such actions, the evidence should be considered irrelevant and excessively prejudicial.
It is alleged that James and Jennifer purchased a gun for their son shortly before the school shooting, with Jennifer referring to it as a Christmas present for Ethan in a social media post. Additionally, the parents are accused of visiting Oxford on the morning of the shooting and, despite concerns raised by the school counselor’s office about disturbing drawings made by their son in class, refusing to take him home.
