Prosecutors accused Jennifer Crumbley of gross negligence when she failed to notify Oxford High School that her family owned guns, including the gun her son Ethan used to practice shooting at a shooting range before the Nov. 30 attack. Her husband James, who will be tried in March, was also charged in the same case. Voice of America reports.
The jury -- which included jurors who own guns or grew up using them -- began deliberating the case Monday morning.
Prosecutors said Jennifer Crumbley had a duty under Michigan law to prevent her son, who was 15 at the time of the attack, from harming others. She is accused of not keeping the gun and ammunition in a safe place in the house and of not seeking help for her son's mental health.
On the day of the attack, school staff were concerned about violent drawings of a gun, bullets and an injured man, which were found on Ethan Crumbley's math assignment alongside desperate messages.
He was allowed to stay at school after a meeting with his parents who did not take him home.
Hours later, Ethan pulled a gun from his backpack and shot 10 students and a teacher. Four students died. No one had checked the attacker's backpack.
The mother took her son shooting
Ethan had bought the gun with his father James four days earlier. His mother took him to the shooting range that same weekend, writes the Voice of America.
"You are the last adult to have that gun." You saw your son fire the last test rounds before the school shooting on November 30th. You saw how he stood. He knew how to use a gun", Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Kist said last week, while questioning Jennifer Crumbley, who responded:
"Yes, it is."
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism and is serving a life sentence. Prosecutors did not have to call him as a witness to prove his mother's guilt.
Her lawyers argued that the teenager could help in her defense. However, the judge did not call him to testify because defense attorneys argued that Ethan would invoke his right to remain silent. He could still appeal the life sentence.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents in America to be charged in a mass school shooting by their child.
Undetected problems
Jennifer said during the trial that her husband should have taken care of the gun, and that she saw no signs of mental problems in her son.
"We would talk." We did a lot of things together. I trusted him and had the feeling that I was open to him. He could tell me anything," she said during her testimony.
Ethan Crumbley wrote in a diary, which police found, that his parents did not listen to his pleas for help.
"I didn't have any help for my mental issues that caused me to shoot up at school," Ethan wrote.
