Michigan school shooter Ethan Crumbley's dad moans he's a 'martyr' (2024)

The father of school shooter Ethan Crumbley insists he is a 'martyr' who feels like he 'joined the military' to prevent other parents from being jailed like him.

James Crumbley was sentenced alongside his estranged wifeJennifer to 10 to 15 years behind bars on Tuesday for failing to prevent their son's massacre.

Ethan, 15, gunned down staff and students at Oxford High School in Michigan on November 30, 2021, killing three teens and wounding seven people.

He was jailed for life without parole and his parents were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure the gun he used in his rampage.

JamesCrumbley maintained his innocence and played the victim in numerous recorded calls he made from inside jail from December 2022 to earlier this year.

'I kind of feel like a martyr. We're martyrs, you know, without the whole dying aspect of it. Because I don't know a better word to use. So I use the word martyr,' he said in one call.

'But we're martyrs to make sure that this doesn't happen to anybody else in America again. To make sure that nobody like (sic) that dumb, stupid b***h [Oakland County Prosecutor] Karen McDonald.'

Crumbley claimed he was 'going to fight the good battle' for other parents who could be charged if their children committed a mass murder.

'I feel like I'm joined the military and going to fight for my country, you know? I kind of am. I'm fighting for everyone else's freedom,' he said.

'I kind of feel like a martyr or martra, however you want to pronounce it. If they allow this stupid b***h to do to us what she's trying to do based on nothing.

'Here's the thing, she never did any type of investigation before they charged us.

'They're trying to blame it all on us, they're trying to say none of this should have happened because you.

'It's so **king ridiculous. It wasn't us! It wasn't us! It was the f–king school!'

Elsewhere in the audio that was publicly released by prosecutors on Wednesday,Crumbleythreatened McDonald.

'Karen McDonald, you are going down. Yeah you stupid b***hes at the f**king jail, go ahead record this call, send it to Karen McDonald,' he said on October 9, 2023.

'Tell her how James Crumbley is going to f**king take her down. She will not have a law license when I get done with her.

'Karen McDonald will be working at f**king McDonalds, cause she ain't gonna be able to get a job anywhere else.'

In another call on December 6, 2022, he said: 'Well, she's going to be f**king sucking on a f**king hot rock down in hell soon.'

Another call on December 20, 2023, was more pointed: 'Yeah, f**king Karen McDonald. You're f**ked when I get out.'

Crumbley's rage had not subsided by earlier this year, as the threats continued in another call on January 4.

'You know what, three months from now it is going down, when I get out of here. I am on a rampage, Karen,' he said.

'Yes Karen McDonald your ass is goingdown and you better be f**king scared.'

It remains unclear who Crumbley was on the phone to during his calls.

Prosecutors released the calls on Wednesday along with a pre-sentencing report after the Detroit Free Press obtained some of the audio.

'Defendant's jail calls showed that he blamed everyone but himself for what happened and that he repeatedly referred to himself as being persecuted and considered himself a "martyr",' persecutors wrote in the report.

An investigator at the Oakland County Sheriff's Office told the outlet: 'Most of the contents of the messages I have reviewed appear to be Mr Crumbley complaining about court proceedings and courtroom tactics and Mr Crumbley making comments about winning the matter in court and making Karen McDonald look bad to the public '

The outlet obtained the recordings via Freedom of Information laws, which also uncovered a police report filed by the prosecutor's office into the calls.

The report asked sheriff's office to investigate what they deemed 'harassment and threatening' phone calls.

The calls were mentioned in the first day of Crumbley's trial, which caused a spat in the courtroom and for the jury to be sent home for the day.

Prosecutors raised an issue with Crumbley's jailhouse communications, which his lawyer objected to the issue of being made public.

Crumbley's lawyer Mariell Lehman maintained that Crumbley was not threatening to physically harm McDonald but venting frustrations.

During sentence the phone calls were again brought up, with prosecutors arguing they warranted a stiffer punishment.

Judge Cheryl Matthews agreed and told Crumbley that he 'threatened the wellbeing of the prosecutor.'

His son Ethan opened fire at the school in Oxford, Michigan, and murdered Hana St Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, and Justin Shilling.

Ethan was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murders, after being convicted of 24 felonies including terrorism.

Crumbley and his wife Jennifer were convicted at separate trials earlier this year, with juries finding they ignored Ethan's pleas for help and bought him a firearm.

Their sentences will be served minus the near-two-and-a-half years they have already served, and they will be barred from contacting to their son's victims' families.

The two are the first parents in the US to be held responsible for a child carrying out a mass school attack.

McDonald said Crumbley ignored signs that his son was deeply disturbed, did not get him the help he needed, and did not safely store the firearm in the family home.

McDonald also presented the jury with texts that Ethan Crumbley had sent to a friend and journal entries he had written in the months leading up to the shooting.

In those, he talked about wanting medical attention and hearing voices, but he was worried his parent would be 'pissed.'

On one occasion, according to a text message to a friend, Ethan asked Crumbley to take him to the doctor, but his dad 'gave me some pills and told me to suck it up.'

Defense attorney Mariell Lehman argued that James Crumbley could not have possibly foreseen that his son would carry out a mass shooting.

Crumbley, accompanied by Ethan, bought a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021.

The boy called it his 'new beauty' on social media. His mother described the gun as a Christmas gift and took him to a shooting range.

Four days after the purchase, the parents went to Oxford High to discuss a violent image their son had drawn on a math assignment.

Alongside the drawing including phrases that said: 'The thoughts won´t stop. Help me.' There was a gun on the paper that looked similar to the Sig Sauer.

The Crumbleys didn't take him home, and school staff - believing he might be suicidal - also didn't demand it.

But no one checked the boy's backpack for a gun, and the shooting happened that afternoon.

Before his sentencing, James read a statement where he said his 'heart is broken for all involved', and he stressed that claims he had no remorse for his son's actions were not true.

'I know the pain and loss will never go away.'