When Jennifer Crumbley texted her son “Don’t do it” on the day of the deadly Oxford High School shooting, she was reaching out to tell him not to kill himself, according to a new court filing.
This detail was disclosed Wednesday in a document seeking a lower bond for Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the shooting suspect, who are facing involuntary manslaughter charges in a novel case that seeks to hold parents responsible, in part, for a school shooting.
The couple are being held on $500,000 cash bonds each, though defense lawyers have asked a judge to reduce each to $100,000 cash, arguing the couple pose no danger to the public and have long ties to the community.
Defense attorneys for the first time gave their account of how the Crumbleys felt following the shooting, and why they believe the prosecution will not be able to prove its case, specifically, that the Crumbleys knew their son would shoot up his school with a gun they had bought him as an early Christmas present.
“The prosecution will not be able to prove that the Crumbleys … knew their son was a danger to other students, or that they knew there was a situation that required them to take care to avoid injuring another,” defense attorneys Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman wrote in the filing.
“The Crumbleys, like every parent and community member, are devastated by the school shooting,” the filing continued. “The last thing they expected was that a school shooting would take place, or…
