Jennifer Crumbley trial: How Oxford's mom responded to messages of demons, bullets
PONTIAC, Mich. (FOX 2) - The trial of the mom of the Oxford High School shooter continued Friday with hours of testimony from a former sheriff's forensic analyst who walked through dozens of messages involving Jennifer Crumbley that happened months before the high school shooting.
Text messages between Jennifer and James Crumbley, plus messages between Jennifer and her son were admitted in court after a bit of a contentious argument with the jury out of the room.
The defense is worried about references to Jennifer's drinking while her son is texting her about hallucinations he says he's having would give off the impression she's ignoring cries for help. Both sides have previously contested what counts as necessary for the case.
The specific text the defense wanted out was sent during a relevant string of messages.
"There's substantial evidence that has been excluded that shows the substance use of James and Jennifer - substantial," Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast said. "We're not introducing any of that because of the court's ruling."
Judge Cheryl Matthews ultimately ruled that certain portions would be left out of evidence but that most of the messages would be allowed for the jury to see. It sent the prosecution frantically editing bits and pieces out of messages but Matthews largely allowed the evidence to continue.
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Keast was questioning Edward Wagrowski, a former forensic analyst with the Oakland County Sheriff's Office.
The messages include conversations between the Crumbley parents on March 17, when the Crumbley parents were with their horses. The shooter claimed in a text that the house was haunted and that some weird things were happening. At the exact same moment, he sent the text, the Crumbley parents were taking pictures of themselves on their horses and Jennifer did not respond to her son's text.
Roughly 25 minutes later, the shooter messaged again, asking for her to at least text back. Evidence showed she did not text back, but did call about 90 minutes later.
Jennifer Crumbleys son talks about seeing demons and bowls flying off the shelves, then asks his mom to at least respond.
Two days later, Jennifer and James exchanged messages about their son. James said their son looked like he had ‘WAY too much to drink’ while Jennifer responded that he was really worked up and that he needed to eat. In that same thread that day, Jennifer said she gave her son melatonin the night before to help him sleep.
The next day, March 20, 2021, Wagrowski said there were more messages that were concerning – these coming from the shooter, when he claimed there were ‘clothes flying off the shelf’. Jennifer didn't respond in the text conversation for two days but the phone log shows she called roughly 4 hours later.
Other texts from the shooter's phone show that he had told his friend about his sleeping problems and paranoia.
The shooter texted his only friend that he felt like he was dying and he was going to talk to his parents about it. But he was worried about them being mad at him.
Oxford High School shooter won't testify at Jennifer Crumbley's trial
In another text conversation between Jennifer and the mom of her son's friend, Jennifer said ‘this was all new’ to them. The two moms exchanged frustration over virtual school and discussed how their two kids got along so well.
These messages were in April – around the same time that Wagrowski said he found disturbing messages on the shooter's phone. Keast did not go into further detail.
In October, the shooter's friend was ‘removed from the state of Michigan’ but did not elaborate how or why the child left Michigan. Keast did show a text exchange where Jennifer expressed concern for her friend for 'having to make such a hard decision.
The parents exchanged concern for each other via text in early November 2021, where Jennifer said she knows that her son misses his friend.
From there, Keast moved to Nov. 26, 2021, the day the weapon used in the shooting was bought at an Oxford gun store. That same day, the shooter recorded video of his gun that had just been bought.
Two days later, Jennifer texted with someone else regarding the health of her horse.
On Monday, Nov. 29, Jennifer searched the web for information on clinical depression – and then messages with James about the horse as well.
This is all at the same time that the school found the shooter researching bullets on his phone. The school left a voicemail on Jennifer's phone where they discussed the conversation and what was said to the shooter. Jennifer listened to the voicemail, while she was still talking via messages with her husband about the horse.
Jennifer then sent a text to her son: "Seriously, looking up bullets in school??"
He admitted to it, said he was curious, and that it was on his phone. He claimed it was harmless and believed he was going to not get into trouble about it
Jennifer responded "Your (sic) not, they left me a voicemail." Then she said "Did you at least show them a pic of your new gun?"
The shooter said again that it was a harm.
"Lol. I'm not mad. You have to learn not to get caught," she said in response.
He also said that he wanted to hear the voicemail after school, which she saved.
Jennifer then discussed the incident with her husband via Facebook message:
"Ethan tell you what happened today?" she asked.
"Yeah", he said in response.
But that was the extent of their conversation about their son.
Keast's argument about how they discussed their son vs. how they discussed treatment for their horses is clearly an effort from the prosecution to try to prove that Jennifer was negligent as a parent, leading to the shooting.
This is just a glimpse of the questions posed during Friday's court session. We're tracking it all live on this page here.