Deputy Aaron Garcia of the U.S. Marshals Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team has provided details about the arrests of the parents of the suspected Michigan school shooter. Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of Ethan Crumbley, who fatally shot four students and injured seven others at Oxford High School in November 2021, is now requesting a Michigan court to exclude evidence of her son’s alleged abuse of baby birds from her own criminal trial.
The defense attorney, Shannon Smith, argues that the “bird evidence” is extremely disturbing and would inflame the passions of the jury. Smith claims that Mrs. Crumbley should not be judged for the acts of her son, which she knew nothing about. Prosecutors and attorneys representing the shooting victims have provided court filings stating that Ethan recorded himself torturing and killing animals, including a bird, in May 2021, several months before the shooting. Attorney Ven Johnson alleged that Ethan severed the bird’s head and kept it in a jar.
New witnesses have come forward, leading to the decision to try the parents separately. It has been alleged that two weeks before the shooting, Ethan brought a severed bird’s head to school and placed it in the boys’ bathroom, which the school staff reportedly ignored.
In February 2022, county prosecutors revealed that Ethan expressed delight in killing a family of baby birds and found joy in hearing their cries. The court ruling excluded certain irrelevant evidence from the cases of Jennifer and James Crumbley but reserved judgment on the bird evidence. Jennifer’s defense is now arguing for the exclusion of the bird evidence, claiming that there is no evidence suggesting that she and her husband were aware of their son’s crimes against baby birds.
The defense motion filed on Monday states that there is clear evidence of Ethan mutilating baby birds on multiple occasions, texting a friend about his actions, recording videos of himself, and photographing his actions. The defense argues that the parents had no knowledge of the bird evidence, and the closest proximity they had to it was Ethan claiming to have kept the bird’s head hidden in his room.
The defense acknowledges that the bird evidence is relevant to the shooter’s case but argues that it is not relevant to the parents’ cases unless they had any involvement or knowledge of the bird abuse. The parents are also facing accusations of purchasing a gun for Ethan before the school shooting and not responding to complaints from the school counselor’s office about his disturbing drawings.
Ethan Crumbley, now 17, has been found guilty of killing four students and has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The trial for Jennifer and James Crumbley is ongoing.
