US: Parents of Michigan school shooter sentenced to jail

The parents of a US high school student who killed four classmates in a 2021 shooting were sentenced to 10-15 years in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughterin a March ruling. 

Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents convicted in a US mass school shooting.

What do we know about the Michigan school shooting?

Ethan Crumbley was 15 at the time of the shooting at Oxford High School in the midwestern state of Michigan in 2021.

The next year, he pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and other charges.

In December, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors said Ethan's parents were criminally negligent for giving their child a gun as an early Christmas present, arguing that they ignored signs his mental health had deteriorated.

James Crumbley bought his son a 9mm semi-automatic handgun just four days before the shooting.

Prosecutors say that Ethan's parents were called to the school on the morning of the shooting after teachers discovered violent messages and drawings on his schoolwork.

They were told that Ethan needed immediate counseling, but they did not take him home or ask him about the gun he had access to.

The defense argued that it was impossible for the parents to envision that their son was capable of committing a mass shooting.

They also noted that they had already served two and a half years in jail after failing to meet a $500,000 (€461,000) bond for their arrest.

Parents failed to halt 'runaway train' — judge

Judge Cheryl Matthews said: "These convictions are not about poor parenting."

"These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train,"  she said.

In remarks to the court before sentencing, Jennifer Crumbley said she had not had any indication that her son was capable of killing.

"My husband and I used to say we have the perfect kid. I truly believed that," she said. "I didn't have a reason to do anything different. This is not something I foresaw."

"If there's anything the general public can take away from this, it's that this could happen to you, too. "I will be in my own internal prison for the rest of my life."

sdi/wmr (AP, AFP, Reuters)