School shooter’s father Ethan Crumbley insists he is a “martyr” who feels he “joined the army” to prevent other parents from being jailed like him.
James Crumbley was sentenced along with his ex-wife Jennifer to 10 to 15 years behind bars Tuesday for failing to prevent the massacre of their son.
Ethan, 15, shot and killed staff and students at Oxford High School in Michigan on November 30, 2021, killing three teenagers and injuring seven people.
He was sentenced to life in prison without parole and his parents were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure the gun he used in his attack.
James Crumbley was sentenced along with his ex-wife Jennifer to 10 to 15 years behind bars Tuesday for failing to prevent the massacre of their son.
Ethan, 15, shot and killed staff and students at Oxford High School in Michigan on November 30, 2021, killing three teenagers and injuring seven people.
James Crumbley maintained his innocence and played the victim in numerous recorded calls he made from inside the jail from December 2022 to early this year.
‘I feel like a martyr. We are martyrs, you know, without the whole death aspect. Because I don’t know a better word to use. That is why I use the word martyr,” he said in a call.
‘But we are martyrs to make sure this never happens to anyone else in America. To make sure no one likes (sic) that dumb stupid bitch [Oakland County Prosecutor] Karen MacDonald.
Crumbley stated that he was going to “fight the good fight” for other parents who could be charged if their children committed mass murder.
‘I feel like I’ve joined the army and I’m going to fight for my country, you know? In a way I am. “I’m fighting for the freedom of everyone else,” he said.
‘I feel like a martyr or martra, however you want to pronounce it. If you allow this stupid bitch to do to us what she tries to do based on nothing.
‘Here’s the thing, she never did any kind of investigation before we were charged.
“They’re trying to blame everything on us, they’re trying to say none of this should have happened because of you.”
‘It’s so fucking ridiculous. It wasn’t us! It wasn’t us! It was fucking school!
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 part of the audio that prosecutors made public Wednesday, Crumbley threatened McDonald.
‘Karen McDonald, you’re falling. Yeah, stupid bitches in fucking jail, record this call and send it to Karen McDonald,” she said on October 9, 2023.
‘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.”
In another call on December 6, 2022, he said, “Well, he’ll soon be sucking hot rock in hell.”
Another call on December 20, 2023 was more direct: ‘Yes, damn Karen McDonald. You’re screwed when it comes out.
Crumley’s anger had not subsided earlier this year, as the threats continued in another call on January 4.
‘Did you know? In three months the figure will go down, when I leave here. I’m in a tizzy, Karen,’ she said.
“Yes, Karen McDonald, your ass is sinking and you better be scared as hell.”
It is unclear who Crumbley was speaking to on the phone during his calls.
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
Prosecutors released the calls Wednesday along with a pre-sentence report after the Detroit Free Press I got some of the audio..
“The defendant’s jail calls demonstrated that he blamed everyone but himself for what happened and that he repeatedly referred to himself as being persecuted and considered himself a ‘martyr,'” the persecutors wrote in the report.
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 winning 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.
James and Jennifer Crumbley sat at the same table before their sentencing, where they received the maximum possible sentence of 10 to 15 years.
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, argued that Crumbley was not threatening to physically harm McDonald, but rather was venting his frustrations.
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 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.
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.
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.
Both are the first parents in the United States responsible for a child carrying out a mass attack on a school.
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.
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 saying 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.”