Father of Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley convicted of involuntary manslaughter for son's crimes

On Thursday, a Michigan jury reached a guilty verdict for James Crumbley, the father of school shooter Ethan Crumbley, for four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The charges stemmed from his 15-year-old son committing a mass shooting at a high school.

The Michigan parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were both charged in the case with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, according to a report from Fox News.  Jennifer Crumbley was found guilty of the charges in February.

The Crumbley's legal defense lawyer, Keith Johnson, pointed out the precedent being set in the case by charging parents for their child's crimes, saying, "This is a historic case because the prosecutors are seeking to hold a parent responsible for the actions of a child … the violent actions that led to the death of other children. And so this is a test case to see the limits of parents' responsibility for the actions of their children who are of a high school age." 

Johnson added that the prosecution and guilty verdict in the case "could definitely lead to prosecutors throughout the country taking a similar strategy and holding parents and guardians responsible if weapons are brought to the home and are used in these types of mass-shooting incidents." 

James declined to testify in the trial, unlike his wife Jennifer, who did so in February. On Wednesday, the jury heard from James' sister, who testified in defense of her brother and said she did not feel as if anything was "wrong" in the household. "If I would've known anything, I would've talked to [Ethan], would have [taken] him home with me if there was any kind of inclination that anything was wrong," she stated.  

The jury also heard from a representative of the Oakland County Sheriff's Department who searched the Crumbley's house for firearms and found several that could be accessed.  

Ethan, the teen who carried out the shooting, used a 9mm Sig Sauer in the shooting at the high school which had been purchased by James just days prior to the shooting. Four students died in the shooting.  

"I think the question becomes: what is a parent reasonably supposed to do to secure a firearm or a weapon or let authorities know that their child is having certain thoughts or certain ideations of violence?" Johnson said of the trial's precedence. "So, I believe that it must be on a case-by-case basis."