Jennifer Crumbley and her defense attorney starting crying as graphic, disturbing surveillance video was being shown to jurors. Prosecutors quickly accused them of trying to attempt to get sympathy.
The mother of Michigan school shooting suspect Ethan Crumbley broke into tears in court Thursday as her trial got underway. She is being accused of giving her son the weapon used in the shooting and not doing enough about his mental state, something she denies.
Jennifer Crumbley and her defense attorney wept as graphic, disturbing surveillance video was being shown to jurors.
Prosecutors quickly accused them of attempting to get sympathy.
“To have not just the defendant, her lawyer, sit there sobbing,” a prosecutor said in court.
“I was not sobbing, this is horrific, that’s why we asked the court not to play it,” Jennifer’s attorney responded. “All the eye makeup is still on. I checked my camera. I need to run to the bathroom. I need a break.”
The shooting suspect’s mother was taken from the court in shackles while people calmed down.
Jennifer’s 15-year-old son, Ethan, fatally shot four students at Oxford High School near Detroit and wounded seven others in 2021.
Jennifer is on trial for manslaughter because she and her husband gave their son the gun he used in the shooting and were allegedly aware of his troubled state of mind.
Ethan has become “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.” The judge ordered that Ethan can only be referred to in court as “The Shooter” or “Jennifer Crumbley’s Son” out of respect for the victims and their families who don’t want his name said out loud.
Defense attorney Shannon Smith apparently forgot and said Ethan’s name twice in court.
“This is the very first time in history that parents are being charged for killings committed by their child,” Court TV’s judge Ashley Willcott tells Inside Edition.
Ethan’s father is being tried separately. His trial starts on March 5.
