Threatening jailhouse phone calls from the father of Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley have been made public, in which he vowed to get revenge on the prosecutor who charged him with manslaughter.
James Crumbley was sentenced earlier this week along with his ex-wife Jennifer to 10 to 15 years behind bars for their role in the massacre of their son.
Authorities have since released audio recordings of calls in which Crumbley threatened Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald.
In the audio, obtained by the detroit free pressCrumley can be heard saying: ‘Karen McDonald, you’re falling. Yeah, you stupid fucking prison bastards, go ahead and record this call and send it to Karen McDonald.
‘Tell her how James Crumbley is going to take her down. She won’t have a law license when he breaks up with her.
“Karen McDonald is going to work at fucking McDonalds, because she won’t be able to get a job anywhere else.”
James Crumbley was sentenced earlier this week, seen here, along with his ex-wife Jennifer, to 10 to 15 years behind bars for his role in the massacre of his son.
Authorities have since released audio recordings of calls in which Crumbley threatened Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, seen here.
In another, Crumbley can be heard saying: “She really deserves it when I come out.” Your butt is sinking and you better be scared as hell.
Another adds: ‘You know what? In three months the situation is going to go down and when I get out of here I will be furious, Karen.
“Yes, Karen McDonald, your butt is sinking and you better be afraid.” It is unclear who Crumbley was speaking to on the phone at the time.
An Oakland County Sheriff’s Office investigator told the outlet: “The majority of the content of the messages I have reviewed appear to be Mr. Crumbley complaining about court procedures and court tactics and Mr. Crumbley making comments about how win the matter in court and make Karen McDonald look bad to the public’
The outlet obtained the recordings through Freedom of Information laws, which also uncovered a police report filed by prosecutors about the calls.
The report asked the sheriff’s office to investigate what they considered “harassing and threatening” phone calls.
The calls were mentioned on the first day of Crumbley’s trial, leading to a dispute in the courtroom and the jury being sent home for the day.
Prosecutors raised an issue with Crumbley’s jail communications, which his attorney objected to being made public.
Crumbley’s attorney, Mariell Lehman, has maintained that Crumbley was not threatening to physically harm McDonald, but rather was venting his frustrations.
James Crumbley is seen crying in court on Monday as he and his wife Jennifer received a historic sentence of 10 to 15 years for the 2021 school massacre of their son Ethan that killed four
James and Jennifer Crumbley sat at the same table before their sentencing, where they received the maximum possible sentence of 10 to 15 years.
During sentencing, the phone calls resurfaced and prosecutors argued they deserved a harsher punishment.
Judge Cheryl Matthews agreed, telling Crumbley he “threatened the prosecutor’s well-being.”
His son Ethan, then 15 years old, opened fire at the school in Oxford, Michigan, killing Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre and Justin Shilling.
Ethan was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders, after being found guilty of 24 serious crimes, including terrorism.
Crumbley and his wife Jennifer were convicted in separate trials earlier this year, with jurors finding that they ignored Ethan’s pleas for help and bought him a firearm.
Their sentences will be served minus the nearly two and a half years they have already served and they will be prohibited from contacting the families of their children’s victims.
The two are the first parents in the US responsible for a mass attack on a school by a child.
McDonald said Crumbley ignored signs that his son was deeply disturbed, did not get him the help he needed and did not safely store the firearm in the family home.
Ethan Crumbley pleaded guilty to his crimes and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, after murdering four classmates in the Oxford High School shooting in 2021.
Justin Shilling, 17, (left) and Tate Myre, 16, (right) were two of four students killed in the senseless shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan.
Madisyn Baldwin, 17 (left) and Hana St Juliana, 14 (right), were killed in the 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in suburban Detroit.
McDonald also presented the jury with texts that Ethan Crumbley had sent to a friend and diary entries he had written in the months before the shooting.
In those, he talked about wanting medical attention and hearing voices, but was worried his parents would get “angry.”
On one occasion, according to a text message sent to a friend, Ethan asked Crumbley to take him to the doctor, but his father ‘gave me some pills and told me to hold on to them.’
Defense attorney Mariell Lehman argued that James Crumbley could not have foreseen that his son would carry out a mass shooting.
Crumley, accompanied by Ethan, purchased a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald holds the murder weapon at James’ trial, as the jury heard how he purchased the firearm for his son despite his disruptive behavior.
The boy called her his “new beauty” on social media. Her mother described the gun as a Christmas gift and took it to a shooting range.
Four days after the purchase, the parents went to Oxford High to talk about a violent picture their son had drawn on a math assignment.
Along with the drawing are included phrases that said: ‘Thoughts don’t stop. Help me.’ There was a gun on the paper that looked like the Sig Sauer.
The Crumbleys did not take him home and the school staff, believing he might be suicidal, did not require him either.
But no one checked the boy’s backpack for a gun, and the shooting occurred that afternoon.
Before his sentencing, James read a statement in which he said his “heart is broken for everyone involved” and emphasized that claims that he felt no remorse for his son’s actions were not true.
“I know the pain and loss will never go away.”