The first parents in America to be held criminally responsible for their child committing a school shooting will be sentenced this week.

In separate trials, James and Jennifer Crumbley were found guilty on four counts of involuntary manslaughter for gross negligence for enabling their son, Ethan Crumbley, to gain access to the gun he used to carry out a school shooting in November 2021 at Oxford, Michigan. Ethan was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in December after pleading guilty to committing the shooting — which killed four students and injured seven others — when he was 15 years old. 

Ahead of sentencing on Tuesday, prosecutors are urging an Oakland County circuit judge, Cheryl Matthews, to sentence the parents to 10 to 15 years, arguing that the case’s severity and the defendants’ lack of remorse warrants a sentence exceeding the state’s sentencing guidelines, which outline about four to seven years. The sentencing will be the next step in a case that has raised questions about mental health, school safety, and parental responsibility for securing firearms.

Both parents have been in jail since December 2021, when they were found at Detroit after a manhunt that followed the shooting. 

Jennifer, months before the November 2021 shooting, received texts from her son indicating that he was suffering from mental health issues, documents from Michigan’s Court of Appeals note. In a journal, Ethan wrote about wanting to “cause the biggest school shooting in Michigan’s history” and said his parents wouldn’t give him any help for his mental problems, as the Sun reported. James purchased the firearm in November and Jennifer took Ethan to a shooting range and called the gun “his new X-mas present.” 

Days later, both parents were called into the school after Ethan was caught drawing gun-related images on his math worksheet. A school counselor recommended taking Ethan to a therapist immediately. When Jennifer objected, citing her and James’s  jobs, the counselor said Ethan should get medical care within 48 hours. Yet only hours later, Ethan pulled out the gun and committed the shooting. 

The Sun was unable to reach the Oakland County prosecutors or James’s attorney, Mariell Lehman, for comment. Jennifer’s attorney, Shannon Smith — who has made a name for herself defending notorious clients, including a former USA Gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, who now is in prison likely for the rest of his life — did not comment when the Sun reached her. 

In early February, Jennifer was the first of the parents to be convicted — her trial garnered national attention as prosecutors made the case that she was rarely at home and ignored her son’s pleas for help dealing with mental health issues. 

A sentencing memo filed by Ms. Smith states that the case has “been a no-win situation from the beginning” and that “the prosecution repeatedly characterized and continues to present Mrs. Crumbley as a selfish, callous, evil person and horrible mother.”

The memo maintains that Jennifer’s “actions or inactions” could be taken by any parent. “Mrs. Crumbley did not shoot the gun. Mrs. Crumbley did not know her son would shoot the gun. Any gross negligence on her part can only be found to be parenting mistakes that any parent could make,” the filing reads, adding that Ethan manipulated and lied to his parents.

The filing also gives a window into what the past two-plus years in jail have looked like for Jennifer. “She has not had the ability to process the grief and loss she has endured and has instead been confined to a jail cell for more than 27 months for 23 hours per day,” it notes. “On top of that, she has not been allowed to have contact with the two most important people in her life, her husband or son, although she does continue to love them dearly.”

Jennifer is asking the court for credit for time served so far, and she is also appealing her convictions, the filing indicates.

In a rare request, Ms. Smith also asked if Jennifer could serve out any remaining time at Ms. Smith’s guest house, where she could be supervised, out of sight of the community, and be able to work remotely. Ms. Smith notes that ahead of the sentencing memos being released she “begged” the prosecution not to identify that the residential home was her guest house “for the safety and privacy” of Ms. Smith’s own children. 

Jennifer has received public backlash for a statement during testimony that she would not have done anything differently looking back, but her attorney says that statement was taken out of context.

“Hindsight allows us to endlessly criticize what could have been different, and Mrs. Crumbley has put herself through her own personal hell of rehashing the events of November 30, 2021, and the days and months beforehand to see what she missed,” the filing notes. “With the benefit NOW of hindsight, she wishes she could go back and change things.”

The prosecutors, though, have insisted that both parents have shown a “chilling lack of remorse” and that their negligence has “changed an entire community forever.” 

“The entirety of this irreparable damage could have been stopped with tragically simple actions from the defendant, but she failed to take any action when presented with the gravest of dangers — prioritizing her own convenience over the safety of everyone in the school that day,” a memo in Jennifer’s case reads. 

The request for Jennifer to stay in her attorney’s guest house is “a slap in the face to the severity of tragedy,” the prosecutors say, adding that “no sentence” could fix the damage caused during the shooting. 

“As the jury found, defendant’s gross negligence was a cause of this damage, she knew of the danger to another, it was reasonably foreseeable her son would shoot someone, but she failed to exercise even the smallest measure of ordinary care,” the filing reads. 

Prosecutors are seeking the same 10- to 15-year sentence for James, whose attorney is also asking for credit for time served. James has faced backlash after reports emerged that he has made threatening statements about the prosecutor in calls from jail, calling her a “whore” and saying she’d better be “f—ing scared.” After his communications were cut off, he made an obscene gesture at prosecutors in court. His attorney insists that he was merely “venting” about his frustrations in the case.