Jennifer Crumbley trial: Ex-Oxford High School dean questioned, Crumbley's colleagues testify on day 4
Jennifer Crumbley with her defense attorney Shannon Smith on Day 4 of the involuntary manslaughter trial.
Testimony continued on Tuesday in the trial of Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford High School shooter.
Day four had prosecutors and defense attorneys question a school official, detective, and colleagues of Jennifer Crumbley.
Jennifer Crumbley is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say she and her husband were grossly negligent and could have prevented the four deaths of Oxford high students if they had tended to their son’s mental health. Crumbley and her husband, James Crumbley, are also accused of making a gun accessible at home.
School official questioned on shooter's backpack not getting searched
Nicholas Ejak was the dean of students at Oxford High School during the shooting, and worked in the district a few months before the incident occurred. Ejak testified that he had concerns about the teen's mental health.
Ejak said he met with James and Jennifer on the morning of the shooting on Nov. 30, 2021, and expressed that he was surprised the teen was not removed from school and also why his backpack was never searched.
RELATED: Jennifer Crumbley trial: Dean of students says ‘no reason’ to search shooter's backpack
When the defense asked Ejak about the shooter's response to him holding his backpack, he testified "he didn't appear to even care that I was holding his backpack." For context, the weapon used in the shooting was in Jennifer Crumbley's son's backpack.
Jennifer Crumbley's boss and colleague testify, text messages revealed
Andrew Smith, an attorney who also worked at a real estate company where Jennifer Crumbley worked as a marketing director for the business, also testified Tuesday. Smith was her supervisor.
Evidence presented during his testimony were text messages between Smith and Jennifer. Smith said the texts from her phone were deleted and included an image of a math assignment the shooter had drawn, and a text reading "The gun is gone and so are the bullets."
Smith also said it would have been fine if Crumbley had to take her son to work or if she had to leave. Crumbley had told Smith she had to get her son counseling.
He later got a phone call from Crumbley, who had expressed concern about the shooting at Oxford High School. He said he heard sirens in the background.
RELATED: Jennifer Crumbley called son an ‘oopsie baby’ before Oxford shooting, witness says
After the witnesses and jury returned from a break during the trial, Amanda Holland, a coworker of Jennifer Crumbley's when the two worked at the same firm, took the stand.
Holland testified that Crumbley and the shooter got into a fight the night before and that her son ended up locked out of the house. Holland was also near Jennifer when the defendant learned of an active shooter at the school.
Detective takes the stand, guns found in Crumbley home
The prosecution then called detective Adam Stoyek to the stand. Stoyek was initially called to the school and was assigned with clearing out classrooms, but was sent to the home of James and Jennifer Crumbley.
The school shooter was taken into custody at that time. Stoyek testified he wasn't sure what he would find at the home.
The Keltec and Derringer handguns owned by the Crumbleys. They were both kept in the same gun safe.
Images displayed during the trial featured photos of the shooter's bedroom inside the Crumbley home and included targets that were used.
Two more images shared during the trial taken by detectives included one revealing an open gun safe with an empty box of 9mm ammunition and a separate gun safe with two guns inside.
An open gun safe was found on the bed in the master bedroom.
Video played of Jennifer Crumbley's interaction with sergeant
Sergeant Matthew Peschke of the Oakland County Sheriff's Office testified and was among the authorities who responded to the shooter's home and received orders to preserve it for evidence as well as clear it of any people.
Peschke said he spotted a man walking, then spotted a woman coming out onto the porch, who he identified as Jennifer Crumbley.
She was placed in the backseat of a deputy's car and video showed her talking with a deputy off-camera.
The prosecution then played the entire video of the conversation between Crumbley and Peschke.
She explains in the recording that James took their son to school that day, and she believed the gun was still at the house that morning. She said she had slept in and that James had taken her son to school that day.
The deputy explains that the gun box was found on the Crumbley parents' bed in the back bedroom of the home, where Jennifer had been sleeping. She reasoned that James must have put the box on the bed when he learned about the shooting.
The deputy prompted her for more information about the drawings. Jennifer then said she was shocked about what happened. The deputy asked about other weapons in the house, and Crumbley said shooting guns was a hobby of the family.
She said, prior to the meeting that morning before the shooting, her son had never shown any kind of violent tendencies.
During the remainder of the time in the car, they discussed more details, including about his grade and the optics of her getting handcuffed outside her front door.
James Crumbley will stand trial in March. The couple are the first parents in the U.S. to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. Their son, now 17, is serving a life sentence, according to the Associated Press.