(NewsNation) — Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial against the father of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, who killed four of his classmates in November 2021.
James Crumbley, 47, faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection to his son’s crimes. His wife, Jennifer Crumbley, 45, was recently found guilty and convicted of the same charges in her trial last month.
These are unprecedented, never-seen-before cases where the parents are being held accountable for their son’s actions.
James Crumbley’s defense team has already tried to get the trial moved to a different county, but the judge rejected that request.
Jury selection could be a bit of an unpredictable process, with some legal experts saying it could take several days to find a fair, unbiased jury.
In Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, the jury selection process lasted two days.
On the day of the high school shooting, both James and Jennifer Crumbley were called to Oxford High School to pick up their son after he was drawing disturbing pictures that depicted a gun and a person being shot.
During that meeting, both parents refused to take their son home and failed to notify the school that they had recently bought their son a gun.
During her testimony, Jennifer Crumbley suggested that it was up to her husband to keep the gun their son used in the killings properly stored safely.
Although the two trials mirror each other, NewsNation legal analyst and criminal trial attorney Sara Azari says there’s one crucial difference that could be the key to the case.
“A big difference here is that James Crumbley was not as involved in the events that occurred right before the shooting on the day of,” Azari explained. “Jennifer was more involved in the dialogue with the school. But he bought the gun. He bought the gun while completely recklessly disregarding his son’s mental unwellness, essentially.”
The maximum penalty for involuntary manslaughter is 15 years in prison. The Crumbleys have been in jail for more than two years, unable to post $500,000 bond while awaiting trial.
Jennifer Crumbley is scheduled to be sentenced April 9.
Once jury selection is complete, James Crumbley’s trial is expected to start the next day.