James and Jennifer Crumbley, parents of the Oxford High School student accused of killing four classmates last year, appeared in court Tuesday for their preliminary examination. It’s a chance for prosecution to lay out witnesses and evidence in the legal case against the couple.
Both James and Jennifer are facing four counts of involuntary manslaughter. They are accused of making a gun accessible to their 15-year-old son and failing to intervene when he showed warning signs of mental distress at home and at school. The sophomore has been charged as an adult with murder and terrorism. His lawyers filed a notice of an insanity defense, which will likely freeze his case while experts examine him.
One of the witnesses who testified Tuesday is Andrew Smith, the chief operating officer of a real estate company and Jennifer’s supervisor from work. Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald questioned Smith over a text conversation he had with Jennifer, the company’s marketing director, on the day of the shooting.
“And what does it say?” McDonald asked.
“OMG Andy he’s going to kill himself, he must be the shooter,” Smith said.
“And then the next text?”
“I need a lawyer, at substation with police.”
“And then what else?”
“Ethan did it.”
Kira Pennock works at the stable where the Crumbleys kept their horses. McDonald questioned Pennock about how Jennifer talked about her son.
“She thought that it was weird that he wasn’t out doing things like a normal kid,” Pennock testified.
When asked if Jennifer called her son weird, Pennock answered yes.
Jennifer Crumbley shared the violent drawing her son doodled in class the day of the shooting to Pennock and at least two other people.
Prosecutors say they expect the preliminary examination to run into Wednesday and possibly beyond that.