Michigan school shooter's mother Jennifer Crumbley tries to dodge prison by asking to live in her lawyer's guest house under house arrest ahead of sentencing for involuntary manslaughter

The mother of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley has asked to dodge jail time and serve her involuntary manslaughter sentence under house arrest in her lawyer's guest home.

Jennifer Crumbley is facing up to 15 years in jail after being convicted at a court in Michigan in a landmark legal case that found she ignored numerous warning signs that her son might carry out a school shooting. 

Her lawyer, Shannon Smith, has requested that Jennifer live in her guest house - which prosecutors say is an 'upgrade' on her current house - at her home in northern Oakland County, rather than serving her sentence behind bars. 

Oakland County Prosecutor Marc Keast said the request for the lenient living conditions is a 'slap in the face to the severity of tragedy caused by defendant's gross negligence.'

Instead, Keast has recommended 10-to-15-year jail sentences for both Jennifer and her husband, James, who has also been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Jennifer Crumbley is facing up to 15 years in jail after being convicted on involuntary manslaughter

Her lawyer Shannon Smith has requested that Jennifer live in her guest house

Oakland County Prosecutor Marc Keast said the request for the lenient living conditions is a 'slap in the face to the severity of tragedy'

They are scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, and like Jennifer, James is seeking to avoid prison and has asked for time served in lieu. 

Referring to James, Keast argued in his sentencing memo: 'Defendant’s shameless lack of remorse in asking for time served as an appropriate sentence is a slap in the face to the severity of tragedy caused by his gross negligence, to the victims and their families.'

He said: 'Beyond defendant’s gross negligence, his jail calls show a total lack of remorse, he blames everyone but himself, and he threatened the elected Prosecutor.

'(He) has shown a chilling lack of remorse for his culpability in this matter. He has blamed everyone but himself and considers himself a 'martyr.''

According to an interview with investigators seen by the Detroit Free Press asking for leniency, Jennifer said: 'I have been in jail for over 26 months and have been locked down 23 hours per day. 

'I am hopeful the Court will sentence me in a way that allows me to be released from jail for the balance of my sentence.'

Keast said: 'Consistent with her efforts to minimize her culpability directly after the shooting, defendant — now even after trial — continues to show a complete lack of remorse by minimizing any role she had in the matter.

'Demonstrating this fact, defendant thinks a proportionate sentence is to 'be placed on a tether with house arrest' at her attorney’s guest house — ostensibly an upgraded residence from (her former Oxford home) where she resided before her gross negligence that led to the Oxford High School shooting.'

The parents were convicted in separate trials after juries found they ignored numerous cries for help from their son and bought him a gun before he shot and killed four students in 2021. 

In evidence, they heard Ethan wrote in his diary: 'My parents won't listen to me about help or (a) therapist'.

In another entry he said: 'I have zero help for my mental problems and it's causing me to shoot up the f****** school'.

Prosecutors argued that Crumbley was so negligent as a parent that she was partly to blame when her son Ethan, then 15, killed four people and injured seven at Oxford High School in Pontiac in November 2021.

The jury heard that Crumbley was more interested in an extramarital affair, her horses and going for nights out on the town, than spending time with her son.

Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to his crimes and is currently serving life in prison without the possibility of parole, after murdering four classmates in the Oxford High School shooting in 2021

Justin Shilling, 17, (left) and Tate Myre, 16, (right) were two of four students killed in the senseless shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan

Madisyn Baldwin, 17, (left) and Hana St Juliana, 14, (right) died in the 2021 shooting rampage at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit 

The 45-year-old and her husband James Crumbley, 47, bought the gun their son used in the shooting four days before the rampage, the jury heard. 

Prosecutors put forward the novel theory of extended parental liability, which the jury agreed with after 11 hours of deliberations. 

They failed to secure it properly and Crumbley even went to a shooting range with Ethan to practice a few days prior to the killing.

Following the shooting, a search of the teen's home found his room messy, with with paper targets from a shooting range on his wall. 

An empty bottle of whiskey was on a table beside his bed. At the time of the attack, he was six years under America's legal drinking age.  

The safe used to house his Sig Sauer handgun was empty on his parents' bed. 

There were two other guns in a separate safe that could be unlocked with the code 0-0-0.  

Two hours before the attack, Crumbley was called to Ethan's high school for a meeting where he wrote about 'blood everywhere' in a maths textbook.

During the trial, defence lawyer Shannon Smith said that the case was 'dangerous' to parents.

She asked the jury to find Crumbley not guilty 'for every parent doing the best they can, who could easily be in (her) shoes'.

Ethan is already serving life in prison after admitting 24 counts including murder. His mother is expected to be sentenced on April 9th.

Speaking to The New York Times, legal expert Eve Brensike Primus said that despite the historical significance of the conviction, the evidence against Ethan Crumbley's parents is not common among the parents of other shooters. 

'I have heard many people say they think a guilty verdict in this case will open the floodgates to these kinds of prosecutions going forward. To be honest, I’m not convinced that’s true,' Primus said. 

Thought the professor did add that it could create a template for other prosecutors seeking justice for mass shootings.  

James and Jennifer Crumbley were both charged in connection with their son's shooting, the first time parents have faced charges over a school shooting 

The father of a 17-year-old victim who Ethan gunned down hopes Crumbley's conviction will wake up other parents. 

Craig Shilling, whose son Justin was one of the four murdered students, was present for the verdict at Oakland County Circuit Court. 

Speaking outside the courtroom moments after Crumbley was found guilty, Mr Shilling said: 'The cries have been heard, and I feel this verdict is gonna echo throughout every household in the country.'

'I feel it's necessary, and I'm happy with the verdict. It's still a sad situation to be in. It's gotta stop. It's an accountability, and this is what we've been asking for for a long time now,' he added.

The four guilty verdicts — one for each student slain at Oxford High School — were returned after about 11 hours of deliberations.

Crumbley looked down and shook her head slightly as each juror was polled after the verdicts were read.

On her way out of the courtroom, prosecutor Karen McDonald hugged relatives of Shilling and Madisyn Baldwin.

'Thank you,' a man whispered to her.

Craig Shilling (left), whose son Justin was one of the four murdered students, was present for the verdict at Oakland County Circuit Court

Shilling said he hoped Jennifer Crumbley's conviction would wake up other parents

Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald hugs Shilling after the verdict

A gag order by the judge prevented McDonald and defense attorney Shannon Smith from speaking to reporters.

On the morning of November 30, 2021, school staff members were concerned about a violent drawing of a gun, bullet, and wounded man, accompanied by desperate phrases, on Ethan Crumbley's math assignment. 

His parents were called to the school for a meeting, but they didn't take the boy home.

A few hours later, Ethan pulled a handgun from his backpack and shot 10 students and a teacher. No one had checked the backpack.

The gun was the Sig Sauer 9mm his father had purchased with him just four days earlier. His mother had taken her son to a shooting range that same weekend.

Outside the courthouse, the jury forewoman, who declined to give her name, said jurors were influenced by evidence that Crumbley was the last adult to possess the gun. That 'really hammered it home,' she told reporters.

Indeed, the jury saw images of Crumbley leaving the shooting range with the gun in a box.

'You saw your son shoot the last practice round before the (school) shooting on Nov. 30. You saw how he stood... He knew how to use the gun,' assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said while cross-examining the mother last week.

'Yes, he did,' Jennifer Crumbley replied.

In her closing argument Friday, McDonald said she filed the unprecedented charges because of the 'unique, egregious' facts leading up to the massacre. 

School officials insisted they would not have agreed to keep Ethan on campus that day if the parents had shared information about the new gun, which the boy on social media called his 'beauty'.

The words with the disturbing drawing said: 'The thoughts won't stop. Help me. The world is dead. My life is useless.'

'He literally drew a picture of what he was going to do,' McDonald said. 'It says, 'Help me.'

Besides 17-year-old Justin Shilling and 17-year old Madisyn Baldwin, Hana St Juliana, 14, and Tate Myre, 16, were also killed. 

Ethan, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism and is serving a life sentence.

Jennifer Crumbley told jurors that it was her husband's job to keep track of the gun. She also said she saw no signs of mental distress in her son.

'We would talk. We did a lot of things together,' she testified. 'I trusted him, and I felt I had an open door. He could come to me about anything.'

In a journal found by police, Ethan wrote that his parents wouldn't listen to his pleas for help.

'I have zero help for my mental problems and it's causing me to shoot up the... school,' he wrote.

Prosecutors introduced evidence that Crumbley texted his mother in spring 2021 about 'demons' throwing bowls and other hallucinations. 

But she told the jury it was 'just Ethan messing around'.

'I have asked myself if I would have done anything differently. I wouldn't have. I wish he would have killed us instead,' she testified.

The jury forewoman (pictured) told DailyMail.com that the damning evidence that sealed Jennifer Crumbley's conviction was that 'she was the last adult with the gun'

Jurors at the involuntary manslaughter trial of Jennifer Crumbley were shown disturbing drawings by mass shooter son Ethan hours before he opened fire at Oxford High school, killing four

The jury of six men and six women included people who own guns or grew up with them in their home.

Crumbley will get credit for roughly two and a half years in the county jail when she returns to court for sentencing on April 9. 

The judge will set the minimum prison sentence, based on scoring guidelines and other factors.

It will be up to the Michigan parole board to determine how long she actually stays in prison. The maximum term for involuntary manslaughter is 15 years.