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Jennifer Crumbley in court Tuesday (Photos: Screenshots)
Update: 5 p.m. Tuesday: The prosecution in court played a 911 call on Nov. 30 from Ethan Crumbley's father after he heard about the Oxford High shooting and ran home to see if his new 9mm Sig Sauer was missing. It was.
"I'm at my house," James Crumbley told the dispatcher. "There's an active shooter situation going on at the high school. My son goes to the high school. I have a missing gun at my house. I need an officer to come to my house right away."
"I have a missing gun. .. I think my son took the gun."
He then told dispatcher his son's name.
Crumbley stared off to the side as the recording played in Rochester Hills District Court at the preliminary hearing for him and his wife, Jennifer. She began crying while listening to the tape. Her attorney dried tears with a tissue.
The preliminary exam hearing resumes in two weeks on Feb. 24.
Original post, Tuesday morning:
Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of Oxford High shooter Ethan Crumbley, referred to her son last summer as "weird" and described him as a loner who spent lots of time playing video games, according to the owner of a horse farm in Lapeer County.
Kira Pennock, 25, testified in a preliminary court hearing Tuesday for the Crumbley parents that Jennifer spent many hours at her stables in Metamora and they became friends. Jennifer seldom spoke about her teen, the witness said, but when she did it was that he "didn't do normal kid things."
She can't recall her saying anything "super positive. She really just didn't talk a whole lot about him."
Jennifer and James Crumbley owned two horses kept at the farm and took riding lessons there.
The parents are charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Nov. 30 rampage that killed four students and wounded six others and a teacher. Prosecutors have alleged that they could have done more to address red flags with Ethan and locked the gun he used.
Pennock also testified that Jennifer Crumbley texted her the morning of the shooting and sent a photo of a disturbing drawing Ethan was caught doing on a math assignment.
Crumbley told Pennock that Nov. 30 morning that she'd had a "shit day" and needed to meet with the school counselor.
Pennock said she later thought "it was Ethan. I know they own guns and go out shooting, and that math test with everything written on it made me think it was him."
Kira Pennock
She subsequently got a text from Jennifer that said: "My son ruined so many lives today."
Pennock also said that Jennifer confided in her that she suspected her husband of adultery.
Pennock testified that the Crumbley parents spent three or four days a week, three hours at a time, coming to the farm to care for and ride their horses. Oakland Prosecutor Karen McDonald tried to suggest during the proceeding that the Crumbleys spent far more time with their horses than their son.
The prosecutor asked whether she knew that when the Crumbleys heard about the shooting, James rushed home to see if the newly bought 9mm Sig Sauer gun was missing and he then called 911 to say his son was the shooter. She said she did not.
Attorney Andrew Smith, chief operations officer for a real estate company where Jennifer worked for five years, testified that she was the marketing director of the firm that employed about 700 people.
The morning of the shooting, he testified, "I heard some loud yelling, screaming, and 'what did you do?" He said she texted that the gun and the bullets were gone. He said he didn't know what was going on.
He said he texted her back, saying he was praying that everything was OK. "I didn't know what to say."
She asked him to refer an attorney. She also texted later in the afternoon: "OMG Andy, he’s going to kill himself he must be the shooter. .. Ethan did it.
"I need my job. Please don’t judge me for what my son did," she later texted.
He said: "I was surprised she was worried about her job at the time."
James Crumbley (Photo: Oakland County Sheriff's Office)
In the afternoon, Amanda Holland, an administrative assistant at the real estate firm where Jennifer Crumbley worked, testified Jennifer and her husband James separated and got back together after a trip together.
She said that Jennifer was having an extramarital affair and going during work with the person to the Costco parking lot the street. She also said Jennifer frequented bars.
Later, in the afternoon, Oakland County Sheriff's Detective Edward Wagrowski went over texts and videos. In one text, Jennifer Crumbley playfully told her son to be more careful after he was sent to the office for searching for bullets on his phone.
"Seriously?? Looking up bullets at school?," Jennifer Crumbley texted Nov. 29 text, a day before the shooting.
The prosecution also played a 911 call in which a frantic James Crumbley called police to say he believed that the Oxford High shooter was his son Ethan.
