James and Jennifer Crumbley's jury trial is set for Jan. 23 in Oakland County.
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Oxford shooter parents' attorneys: Son never asked for mental health treatment
The parents of the Oxford teen who shot and killed four classmates in November 2021 as well as injured seven others say their son never asked them for mental health treatment, contrary to his claims.
James and Jennifer Crumbley said they had no reason to believe their son, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was suffering from mental health concerns that would require him to get treatment, according to a request for evidence filed by the couple's attorneys.
"Evidence claiming that the shooter was asking his parents to get him to a doctor or get him help was sent in text messages to the shooter's friend — this was not information that either parent knew he was claiming, and the parents deny that he ever asked them to seek treatment for him," attorneys Mariell Lehman and Shannon Smith wrote in their request Monday.
The Crumbleys are charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter connected to the four students their son killed. Prosecutors have argued they were grossly negligent and failed to address their son's mental health needs. They said the Crumbleys should have foreseen what would happen when they bought their mentally ill son a gun and did not seek treatment when he supposedly asked for it.
Lehman and Smith noted the Crumbleys remain the shooter's parents; their rights have not been terminated. They have been involved in decisions about his mental health and have signed off on medication requests and have met with a jail caseworker to tell them about his medications, well-being, behavior issues and to ask any other health related questions.
The shooter's mental health will be a "paramount issue" in the parents' trial, Lehman and Smith wrote, just as it was during his Miller hearing.
During the Miller hearing, prosecutors argued the shooter doesn't have a mental illness, which the shooter's attorneys said was disingenuous. Prosecution witness psychiatrist Dr. Lisa Anacker
said the shooter did not meet the statutory definition of being mentally ill.
In the parents' case, prosecutors have repeatedly said they bought their mentally ill son a gun and failed to get him treatment, Smith and Lehman wrote. But during his Miller hearing, they argued he was not mentally ill.
"Put plain and simply, the prosecution cannot have it one way in one case and another way in another," Smith and Lehman wrote. "It is noteworthy that many of the positions the parents have taken in this case are consistent with the prosecution's argument against the shooter at his Miller hearing. For example, as the parents have argued all along, the shooter was not suffering from mental illness and obviously, based on that conclusion, Mr. and Mrs. Crumbley had no reason to suspect their son was mentally ill or seek mental health treatment (prior to the conversation in the counselor's office on November 30, 2021)."
The shooter's attorney, Paulette Loftin, argued the same thing
during closing arguments at the teen's Miller hearing.
"We have one set of facts here. You can't stand in two different courtrooms and argue two different things when it's one set of facts," Loftin said.
During her rebuttal at the Miller hearing, Prosecutor Karen McDonald called Loftin’s statements "offensive and unconscionable." She denied that her statements during the Miller hearing and the shooters' parents' case were contradictory.
McDonald said there was no doubt the shooter was in mental distress and in crisis, but that he does not meet the statutory requirement for mental illness.
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