Watch live: Jennifer Crumbley testimony ends in involuntary manslaughter case

Jennifer Crumbley, the first parent in America to stand trial on charges seeking to imprison her over a child's school shooting, returned to the witness stand Friday for a second day in an Oakland County courtroom.

By late morning, testimony was wrapped up and attorneys were preparing for closing arguments.

The involuntary manslaughter charges against her and her husband, James, who goes on trial in March, allege that they were inattentive parents who ignored their son's mental health struggles and pleas for help, but bought him a gun on Black Friday 2021, which he used days later to kill four classmates at Oxford High School and injure seven other people.

More: Jennifer Crumbley tries to humanize her embattled family from the witness stand

Follow live here, with the most recent excerpts at the top:

Jennifer Crumbley's testimony Thursday sought to portray her as an involved, loving mother who — like school officials who let Ethan Crumbley stay in school after finding a drawing of a gun dripping with blood — had no clue the teen would go on a rampage. She was questioned Thursday by her attorney, Shannon Smith; Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast began cross-examination Friday.

At the time of the shooting, 'you could have been with him'

Keast asked Jennifer Crumbley about Nov. 29, 2021, the night before the shooting. She testified that she and her husband had gotten in a fight with her son about his grades. He asked her if she locked her son out of the house. She said she did not, but he walked out of the house and she agreed that he had taken his phone.

Keast said that on that night, Ethan Crumbley filmed a 19-minute video while he was outside describing what he was going to do the next day.

Jennifer Crumbley asked what time that was and Keast said “10 o’clock.”

“I don’t know if he got it back,” she said, adding that they also told him he couldn't go to the shooting range for a time.

Under questioning by the prosecution, she agreed nothing was stopping her from taking him home on the day of the shooting.

“And on November the 30^th of 2021 at 12:51 p.m., you could have been with him,” Keast said, referring to the time the shooting in the school began.

“I could have, yes,” she said.

“And you didn’t,” Keast said.

Jennifer Crumbley said no.

What Jennifer Crumbley talked about in jail phone calls

Keast said he wanted to talk with Jennifer Crumbley about and her priorities from the time she was arrested. Jennifer Crumbley has been jailed since she was arrested. Keast said her phone calls were recorded.

Keast said, “Your priority on your first phone call,” on Dec. 4, 2021, was her animals and cash. Crumbley didn’t deny that.

“Do you deny that it wasn’t until 10 days later and 14 calls later that you even mentioned your son?” Keast said.

Jennifer Crumbley said she “was under the impression that I couldn’t mention him because I could get flagged at the jail.” She agreed she mentioned him in later conversations and Keast cited a later call where she said he “just needs to man up.” Jennifer Crumbley said she didn’t remember that, but “it sounds like something I would say.”

Prosecutors played audio from calls between Jennifer Crumbley and her father in which she discusses setting up a GoFundMe to pay for the board of her horses.

Keast then asked her about her actions after learning she was going to be charged, including a text she sent to her lover:

"We're F-----."

Correct, Crumbley said matter of factly, showing no emotion as she answered the prosecutor's questions.

Keast asked about the four Xanax that Crumbley said she took the night before she and her husband were arrested, and her testimony that she and her husband were asleep when officers showed up with guns drawn.

Crumbley said yes, that's what happened.

Keast challenged her testimony, citing text messages from their lawyers: "When you can, we would like for you to call us."

She responded: "Thank you. Shannon is calling you shortly."

Smith texted her that she and another lawyer were coming to get the Crumbleys the following morning to take them to court for arraignment.

"Okay, we'll be waiting," she texted her lawyer that night.

Jennifer Crumbley said her husband's prepaid phone had broken and they were both using the same phone at that point.

An 11:14 p.m. text read: "Think we were found. ... We might have been found. Laying low."

Smith responded: "Oh shit."

Smith has long maintained that her client was not on the run, but was planning on turning herself in at court the following morning, and that her client had set her cellphone alarm for 6 a.m. the following morning to wake up for her arraignment.

Jurors saw images of her cellphone alarm set at that time.

'It just looked like a gun to me'

Keast asked about the troubling drawing her son made in math class on the morning of the shooting — the one depicting a gun, a bleeding person and the words, "The Thoughts Won't stop help me."

"I honestly thought the guy in the picture" was wearing a cape, Crumbley testified.

What about the gun? the prosecutor asked.

"It just looked like a gun to me," she testified.

What about "The Thoughts Won't stop, Help me"? the prosecutor continued.

"Yes, that was concerning," she testified.

Later in her testimony, Keast asked her why she never told school officials about the gun that her husband and son had bought just four days earlier.

"I didn't think it was relevant," Crumbley testified.

Keast then asked her why she texted "EMERGENCY" to her husband when she saw those words. And why her husband texted back, after seeing the drawing: "WTF, oh my god."

Keast is trying to show that the Crumbleys were alarmed by the note, should have known better than to leave their son in school that day and should have disclosed to school officials that they had gifted their son a gun.

This is a crucial detail in the case, because to prove involuntary manslaughter, the prosecution must prove that there was a "reasonable foreseeability" by the parents that their son would carry out a school shooting, given what they knew about him.

Jennifer Crumbley testified that she never saw any signs that her son would commit a school shooting. She said he had no disciplinary issues, had never been in trouble at school and led a pretty normal family life of going on vacations with his family, camping, hiking and fishing or playing board games with his best friend, who also went on family trips with the Crumbleys.

Jennifer Crumbley testified that school officials gave her son the option of staying in school or going home, and told the family their son posed no safety risk to the school. Her son wanted to stay in school, she said, so the parents left him there and returned to their jobs.

School officials have corroborated this narrative, though they said they initially expected that the parents would take him home. Instead, the officials testified, the Crumbleys said they needed to return to their jobs, and vowed to get Ethan Crumbley help within 48 hours, so the school thought it was in the teen's best interest to stay in class.

Crumbley testified that she never "refused" to bring him home, and that if he wanted to go home she would have taken him.

Keast also asked Jennifer Crumbley if her son had a consistent desire to obtain a weapon and she said she knew that her son and husband constantly talked about it.

Crumbley said she was not along on Nov. 26, 2021, when her husband and son went to the firearms store and bought the 9mm gun that was ultimately used in the school shooting.

“I did not know they were going to the gun store that day, no,” she testified.

Under questioning by the prosecution, she said she went to the gun range with her son.

“He knew how to use the gun,” Keast said.

“Yes, he did,” Jennifer Crumbley said.

“In fact, he showed you how to use the gun,” Keast said.

She agreed.

Citing Facebook messages between Jennifer and James Crumbley, Keast said to her: “It’s pretty clear you didn’t trust James with much.

“You didn’t trust him to get out of bed on time,” Keast said.

“Correct,” she testified.

“You didn’t trust him to cut the grass when it was time to cut the grass,” Keast said.

“He would cut the grass when it got to a length I didn’t like,” she said.

“You didn’t trust him to update you on his whereabouts,” Keast said.

“There’s a reason behind that,” she said.

“You didn’t trust him to not turn off or turn on the Ring camera in your home,” Keast said.

“Correct,” she said.

“You didn’t trust him to keep track of your son,” Keast said.

Jennifer Crumbley said she trusted her husband to keep track of her son.

Keast said she didn’t trust him to hold down a job, to which she responded that her husband: “had a hard time holding down one after COVID.” She agreed that in the messages she is often asking him about work and what he’s doing to obtain a job.

“But this is the person you entrusted with a deadly weapon,” Keast said.

“I did,” she said.

Prosecution asks about affair, how the mother spent her time

Keast started his cross-examination, stating: "Mrs. Crumbley, I want to talk to you about your vigilance as a parent."

Keast then asked her if she saw herself as a "hypervigilant parent" as her lawyer said.

"Yes," she said.

He then asked about her outside interests and the time she spent and costs.

She agreed that she "probably" spent $20,000 a year on horses and said she worked double shifts on Saturdays on ski patrol.

Keast asked her about her affair with Brian Meloche.

"It wasn't just weekdays was it?" Keast asked, noting that Crumbley on Thursday said she met Meloche once a week.

"No," she said, conceding he joined her on some business trips.

He then asked her about an app on her phone called AdultFriendFinder, citing messages from her in 2021, and asked her if she and her ex-lover arranged to be with other couples.

On Nov. 28, 2021, Keast said, she was arranging a meetup, arguing that it took time to set up meets with someone else.

Crumbley said it didn't take that much time.

Keast then asked her about text messages from her son that he was seeing demons throwing bowls, and asking her to text him back.

Crumbley previously testified that her son was just "messing around" in those texts and long joked about ghosts being in the house — even nicknaming a house ghost as "Veronica" and "Boris Johnson."

Keast asked her about the gun that she and her husband "gifted their son."

"Define gifted," she said, maintaining the gun was to be used only by her son at a shooting range with his dad, and that the family did shooting activities together.

"We didn't just hand him a gun, as 'here you go son,'" she testified on cross-examination.

Prosecutors seek review of Crumbley texts with lawyers

The start of testimony on Friday was delayed by a request by the prosecution for Judge Cheryl Matthews to review potential text messages between Jennifer Crumbley and her attorney Smith at the time when authorities alleged the Crumbleys were on the run.

David Williams, chief assistant Oakland County prosecutor, said: “The issue of flight has been important from the start of this case; it was part of a bond motion. The allegation has always been by the prosecution that the defendant was fleeing from prosecution, that in contrast to the public statements by her attorney that she was not returning and not turning herself in.”

He told Matthews that Jennifer Crumbley waived her right to attorney-client privilege when she testified on Thursday that she was in touch with her attorney at that time, taking the advice to turn themselves in and waiting on her attorney’s direction.

“She’s waived her privilege,” Williams said. “She cannot use that as a sword to present in her case as a defense to flight and then say you can’t see those messages.”

Smith said she had not seen the messages, doesn’t have them on her phone and said her client did not believe her client waived her attorney-client privilege. She said: “I don’t know if it’s between me and my client. It says ‘Shannon Mariell,’” Smith said, which are the first names of James and Jennifer Crumbley’s attorneys. Smith said that, at the time, she and Mariell Lehman were both representing the couple.

After a break, Matthews said she had done research on the matter and agreed to do the review, which is limited to text messages to determine if there is a reference to flight, but said she was reluctant to do so.

“I think that the privilege that the defendant holds is her absolute privilege and protects her constitutional rights so I think this is a very serious issue and reviewing these records could set a very dangerous precedent,” Matthews said. “However, I also note that the prosecution is requesting that the review be for a limited purpose on the issue of flight and not on the issue of anything else.”

Matthews said she thought if she “didn’t review these texts that it could be potentially unfair to the claimant, that being the prosecutor on this limited issue.”

After reviewing the messages, Matthews said she made a copy for Smith, who did not object to anything in the texts. Matthews handed a copy of the messages to the prosecution. Prosecutors began reviewing them at their table, then stepped out of the courtroom.

Jennifer Crumbley took the stand as the lawyers returned to court.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Watch live: Testimony Jennifer Crumbley involuntary manslaughter trial