Exactly one year ago Wednesday, then-15-year-old Ethan Crumbley opened fire on his Oxford, Michigan, high school, killing four innocent students and injuring seven others.
On Tuesday, the Michigan Supreme Court temporarily halted the case against Crumbley's parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, who are charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter each for their alleged roles in Ethan's crimes.
"[W]e REMAND this case to the Court of Appeals for consideration as on leave granted, limited to whether there was sufficient evidence of causation to bind the defendant over for trial on the charges of involuntary manslaughter," the Tuesday order states.
Justice Richard Bernstein dissented, stating that while the parents' case "raises a number of novel legal issues, the appellate process is designed" so that those issues are "considered after trial."
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"Moreover, addressing causation at this stage will unnecessarily delay the trial proceedings, which are set to begin in January," the justice wrote in his dissent. "In order to avoid needless delay, I would prefer to remand to the Court of Appeals simply for that court to reconsider defendant’s challenge to the denial of the motion to quash in light of the concern articulated in Yost, as I believe any substantive questions pertaining to causation should not be addressed until after trial is complete."
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Ethan Crumbley, who fatally shot Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling on Nov. 30, 2021, pleaded guilty to 24 total charges in early November.
James and Jennifer Crumbely, however, still face four counts of involuntary manslaughter each for their roles in their son's spiral and ultimate decision to open fire on his classmates. Prosecutors say his father purchased the then-15-year-old a gun for Christmas, and his mother posted about the gift on Facebook.
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Prosecutors also say James and Jennifer attended a meeting with Ethan and school counselors the day he shot up Oxford High School but refused to take him home.
"…Just got to go to my son's school and meet his counselor. S--- day," Jennifer Crumbley texted a friend just before 11 a.m. Nov. 30 in a conversation about her horse lesson scheduled for later that day, according to prosecutors.
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She also told her friend that her son was just going through a "hard time" after the death of their family dog, Tank, and "his friend going away to a treatment facility and who knows what else."
"He can’t be left alone," she wrote in another text to the same friend.
Ethan Crumbley took his gun out of his backpack and began shooting shortly after the meeting with his parents and school officials.
Several lawsuits have been filed against the Crumbleys, the Oxford Community School District and individual Oxford High School employees.
