According to newly revealed Michigan jailhouse phone conversation with his sister, the now-convicted father of the Oxford school shooter said he wanted to ruin the prosecutor in his case and said she'd be going to hell.
James Crumbley, father of Ethan Crumbley, made the comments, which were directed at Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald, while his case was still pending. But according to James Crumbley's attorney Mariell Lehman, there's a "disagreement" about the "nature" of Crumbley's words.
According to McDonald, Crumbley "made a lot of threats” but she added that she didn’t want to give any more details since it would give Crumbley attention, NBC News reported.
The alleged threatening statements first emerged during Crumbley's trial, prompting the defense and prosecution to agree to restrict his jail conversations.
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Sources within the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office wouldn't specify how many threats Crumbley made, they confirmed there were multiple ones in 2022, 2023 and as recently as January.
Ethan Crumbley killed four students — Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17 — and wounded seven other people when he opened fire with a handgun Nov. 30, 2021. His father was found guilty on four counts of involuntary manslaughter for the shooting his son carried out. His mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted on the same charges as her husband at a separate trial in February.
Crumbley's defense claims he had no way of knowing that his son would end up carrying out a mass shooting at a school.
"He wished that he had taken his son home that day. If he had known what was going to happen, he would have made different decisions," Lehman said Monday, adding that Crumbley has sympathy for the families of his son's victims.