US school shooter’s parents bag 10 years in jail

The parents of a teenager who carried out a deadly school shooting in the United States were sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison on Tuesday in an unprecedented and closely watched case.

AFP reports that Jennifer Crumbley and her husband James who bought their son the gun as an early Christmas present were the first parents of a school shooter to be convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the US for the actions of their child.

Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Matthews sentenced them to 10 and 15 years in prison each with credit for the 28 months they have already spent behind bars.

Their son Ethan, who is now 17, is serving a life sentence for the November 30, 2021 shooting which left four students dead and seven other people injured at Oxford High School, 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Detroit.

BBC reports that a seven-year sentence was recommended, but prosecutors asked for more.

Judge Cheryl Matthews said that the expanded sentence of 10 to 15 years was “to act as a deterrent” and reflected the parents’ failure to stop the attack.

“They (parents) are not expected to be psychic. But these convictions are not about poor parenting. They concern acts that could have halted a runaway train,” she told the court. Punch