(CNN) — The prosecution and defense rested their cases Wednesday in the manslaughter trial of James Crumbley, the father of the teenager who fatally shot four students at his Michigan high school in 2021, in a case that comes a month after the shooter’s mother, Jennifer, was convicted of the same charges.
Prosecutors, who called 15 witnesses over the past week, recalled one witness on Wednesday morning for brief testimony before resting.
The defense then called one witness, James Crumbley’s sister Karen, who testified that she had spent several days with the Crumbley family in April and June 2021 and did not notice anything concerning. The defense then rested its case.
With the jury out of the room, James Crumbley said he will not testify. “It is my decision to remain silent,” he said.
Closing arguments are expected later Wednesday.
The trial comes more than two years after Ethan Crumbley used a SIG Sauer 9mm weapon, which his father bought for him on Black Friday, to kill four students and wound six students and a teacher at Oxford High School on November 30, 2021.
Prosecutors have argued James Crumbley acted with “gross negligence,” saying he did not properly secure the firearm and ignored warning signs of his son’s spiraling mental health.
“That nightmare was preventable and it was foreseeable,” Oakland County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Marc Keast said in opening statements.
Defense attorney Mariell Lehman has pleaded ignorance on her client’s behalf, saying Crumbley did not know his son had gained access to the weapon and did not believe there was an imminent, immediate threat of danger.
“You will not hear that James Crumbley knew what his son was going to do,” she said in opening statements. “You will not hear that James Crumbley even suspected that his son was a danger.”
James Crumbley has pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. His wife, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted of the same charges last month in a case highlighted by her own testimony in which she pushed blame onto others and expressed no regrets.
The cases against the parents are set to test the limits of who is responsible for a mass shooting. Prosecutors aiming to expand the scope of blame in mass shootings have used an unusual and novel legal strategy by arguing the shooter’s parents are responsible for the deaths because they got him a gun and disregarded signs of his mental health issues.
Parents have previously faced liability for their child’s actions, such as with neglect or firearms charges. Yet Jennifer Crumbley’s case was the first time a parent of a school shooter was held directly responsible for the killings.
Ethan was sentenced last year to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to terrorism causing death, four counts of murder and 19 other related charges. He did not testify in either of his parents’ trials, as his attorneys said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to silence.
Prosecution focused on how guns were secured
The case against James Crumbley has been altogether similar to the one against his wife, featuring testimony from shooting survivors, police investigators and school employees. However, there have been some key differences, as prosecutors have focused more on James’ decision to purchase a firearm for his son and how he stored the weapon, while featuring less evidence about his personal life and interests.
In particular, how the murder weapon was secured and how the shooter gained access to it has been a key point of contention.
Investigators who searched the home after the shooting found an empty gun case and an empty box of ammunition sitting on the parents’ bed, according to photos of the search. The SIG Sauer 9mm firearm had been sold along with a cable lock, and a detective said that cable lock was found still in its plastic packaging. No other firearm locking mechanisms were found in the home, the detective said.
“Did James ever once tell you that the SIG Sauer 9mm used to commit the Oxford high school shooting was ever locked up?” Oakland County assistant prosecutor Marc Keast asked.
“He did not,” said Adam Stoyek, a detective with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.
However, the defense has questioned whether a different locking mechanism may have been used to secure the firearm. At Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, she testified that her husband secured the firearm with a cable lock and the key was stored in a beer stein in the home.
In addition, two other firearms in the home – a .22-caliber Derringer and a .22-caliber KelTec – were locked in a gun safe in the parents’ bedroom dresser, but the combination to unlock the safe was “0-0-0,” the default factory setting, Stoyek said. Under the safe, investigators found two empty magazines, a holster and a box of .22 caliber ammunition, he testified.
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