James and Jennifer Crumbley, parents of Michigan school shooter, sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for manslaughter

The parents of the teenager who killed four students in the 2021 school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, were each sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 15 years in prison, weeks after being convicted of manslaughter.

James and Jennifer Crumbley, who each had faced up to 15 years in prison, have already been imprisoned for over two years since their arrest in a Detroit warehouse days after the shooting. Though they were tried separately, their sentencing took place together in an Oakland County courtroom.

They are the first parents to be held criminally responsible for a mass school shooting committed by their child as the nation continues to grapple with the scourge of gunfire on campus.

Before imposing her sentences, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews told families of the victims she could never understand their pain but assured them she “saw what you saw and I heard what you heard” at both trials. The convictions, she said, were not about poor parenting.

“These convictions confirm repeated acts or lack of acts that could have halted an oncoming runaway train, about repeatedly ignoring things that make a reasonable person feel the hair on the back of their neck stand up,” the judge said.

“Opportunity knocked over and over again, louder and louder and was ignored. No one’s no one answered. And these two people should have and sure didn’t.”

Matthews said James Crumbley provided “unfettered access to a gun or guns as well as ammunition in your home,” while Jennifer Crumbley “glorified the the use and possession of these weapons.”

The Crumbleys addressed the families and the court before sentencing.

“I sit here today to express my deepest sorrows for the families of Hana, Tate, Madisyn, Justin and to all those affected on November 30, 2021,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

She said she was there “not to ask for your forgiveness, as I know it may be beyond reach, but to express my sincerest apologies for the pain that has been caused.”

“I will be in my own internal prison for the rest of my life,” Jennifer Crumbley added.

James Crumbley said: “Before I address this court directly, I want to do something that I had never been able to do … I want to say I can’t imagine the pain and agony for the families … that have lost their children and what they’re experiencing and what they’re going through.”

He added, “I cannot express how much I wish that I had known what was going on with (Ethan) or what was going to happen, because I absolutely would have done a lot of things differently.”

Earlier Tuesday, parents of the slain students addressed the court and the defendants.

Nicole Beausoleil, mother of Madisyn Baldwin, remembered her daughter’s laugh, her smile, her smarts and her creativity before turning her comments to the Crumbleys.

“When you knew the gun was missing, you called the police knowing it was your son who took it. I was having family call every hospital describing what (Madisyn) looked like,” Beausoleil said, growing emotional.

“When you texted ‘Ethan don’t do it,’ I was texting Madisyn, ‘I love you please call mom.’ ”

Justin Shilling’s dad, Craig, spoke of the “pain, anger, heartache, regret, anxiety, stress” he lives with every day.

The parents’ defense attorneys have argued the charges have no legal justification, but appeals courts have upheld them.