JORGE VELA JOINS DAWN LIVE! JORGE JOINS DAWN TO EXPAND ON THE LATEST LEGAL UPDATES... TRUMP TRIALS AND WHAT'S NEXT... PARENTS HELD ACCOUNTABLE IN MICHIGAN - IS THIS A PATH FORWARD? LATEST ON HARVEY WINSTEIN... TRIED AGAIN? ALL PROMPTS BELOW...
(AP) — The parents of a Michigan school shooter were each sentenced to at least 10 years in prison Tuesday for failing to take steps that could have prevented the killing of four students in 2021.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents convicted in a U.S. mass school shooting. They were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors presented evidence of an unsecured gun at home and indifference toward the teen’s mental health.
Ethan Crumbley drew dark images of a gun, a bullet and a wounded man on a math assignment, accompanied by despondent phrases. Staff at Oxford High School did not demand that he go home but were surprised when the Crumbleys didn’t volunteer it during a brief meeting.
Later that day, on Nov. 30, 2021, the 15-year-old pulled a handgun from his backpack and began shooting at the school. Ethan, now 17, is serving a life sentence for murder and other crimes...
The couple had separate trials in Oakland County court, 40 miles north of Detroit. Jurors heard how the teen had drawn a gun, a bullet and a gunshot victim on a math assignment, accompanied by grim phrases: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me. My life is useless. Blood everywhere.”
Ethan told a counselor he was sad — a grandmother had died and his only friend suddenly had moved away — but said the drawing only reflected his interest in creating video games.
The Crumbleys attended a meeting at the school that lasted less than 15 minutes. They did not mention that the gun resembled one James Crumbley, 47, had purchased just four days earlier — a Sig Sauer 9 mm that Ethan had described on social media as his “beauty.”
His parents declined to take him home, choosing instead to return to work and accepting a list of mental health providers. School staff said Ethan could stay on campus. A counselor, Shawn Hopkins, said he believed it would be safer for the boy than possibly being alone at home.
No one, however, checked Ethan’s backpack. He pulled the gun out later that day and killed four students... and wounded seven other people...
The judge, over defense objections, allowed the jury to see excerpts from his journal.
“I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the ... school,” he wrote. “I want help but my parents don’t listen to me so I can’t get any help.”
Asked about Ethan reporting hallucinations months before the shooting, Jennifer Crumbley, 46, told jurors he was simply “messing around.”
At the close of James Crumbley’s trial, the prosecutor demonstrated how a cable lock, found in a package at home, could have secured the gun.
“Ten seconds,” McDonald said, “of the easiest, simplest thing.” Read more.
Will these sentences be upheld if challenged in court? If so, does this set a precedent that other parents of school shooters could be sent to prison?
(Axios)
Harvey Weinstein will be re-tried for sex crimes in New York City as soon as September, the Manhattan District Attorney's office said on Wednesday...
Catch up quick: Weinstein, 72, was found guilty of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree in 2020 by a Manhattan jury.
He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
The conviction was thrown out by an appeals court on Thursday on the basis that the trial and conviction involved "egregious errors."
State of play...
Actress Jessica Mann, an accuser in the case, was in court on Wednesday with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. She is willing to testify again, the AP reported...
Zoom out: Weinstein is serving 16 years in prison in a separate rape case in Los Angele ...
