Jury deliberated for 11 hours before finding Jennifer Crumbley guilty of involuntary manslaughter
(CBS DETROIT) - Jury deliberations went on for 11 hours before Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter, was found guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Deliberations began Monday after a week-long trial, and the verdict was reached Tuesday afternoon.
Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews read instructions to the 17 jurors and then narrowed them down to 12, removing the alternates. The jury is currently made up of 10 women and seven men.
Jurors will deliberate and decide if the mother is partially responsible for the Oxford High School shooting, where her son killed four students, Justin Shilling, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, and Hana St. Juliana, and injured seven other people on Nov. 30, 2021.
Jennifer Crumbley is the first parent in the United States to go on trial in a mass shooting.
The prosecution and the defense each spent over an hour making their closing arguments on Friday.
The prosecution argues that Jennifer Crumbley ignored the signs of the shooter's mental health struggles and purchased the gun that the shooter used in the shooting and should be held responsible for the deaths of the students.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said "just the smallest steps" by the mother could have prevented the deaths of the four students.
READ: Dispute over text messages exchanged between Jennifer Crumbley, attorney about turning self in
The defense argues Jennifer Crumbley was an attentive parent and did not know about the journal entries where the shooter talked about his mental health needs and the shooting.
During closing arguments, Shannon Smith, Jennifer Crumbley's attorney, said that the prosecution had "cherry-picked" evidence to depict an innocent mother as a negligent parent.
Smith said that the shooter didn't have mental illness and was a "skilled manipulator," and while Jennifer Crumbley is accused of buying the gun for her son, Smith said that the responsibility for the gun fell on her husband, James Crumbley.
Matthews will read instructions to the 17 jurors and then narrow them down to 12, removing the alternates. The jury is currently made up of 10 women and seven men.
