- Jennifer Crumbley's boss testified that she was concerned with her job security on the day of the Oxford school shooting.
- Andrew Smith said in court that Crumbley wrote "I need my job" and "please don't judge me for what my son did" in text messages shortly after the shooting.
- "I was surprised she was worried about her job at that time," Smith said.
Andrew Smith, the COO of a real estate company where Jennifer Crumbley worked, said in court that she was mostly concerned with her job security on the day of the Oxford High School shooting and asked him for lawyer recommendations.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are both charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the Michigan school shooting that occurred on November 30, 2021 which left 4 students dead. Prosecutors accused the Crumbleys of giving their child easy access to a firearm that their child is accused of using to carry out the shooting.
Both parents face up to 60 years in prison and $30,000 in fines if convicted.
Smith testified in a preliminary hearing for the Crumbleys' manslaughter trial on Tuesday. Crumbley was the director of marketing at the company where Smith works, he said during his testimony.
According to Smith, Crumbley texted him while the shooting was ongoing where she told him, "I need my job. Please don't judge me for what my son did."
"I was surprised by that text," Smith said in court. "I was surprised that she was worried about her job at that time. I thought she would have been more worried about what was going on."
Smith testified that he heard Jennifer Crumbley screaming in her office on the day of the shooting shortly before she left the building.
"I walked out of my office and I saw Mrs. Crumbley say there was an active shooter at a child's school and she had to go," Smith testified.
Smith told the court that he received a text message around 20 to 30 minutes after Crumbley left work that said "the gun is gone and so are the bullets."
Smith testified that he didn't know what Crumbley meant by the text message but it concerned him. Smith said he then received a call from Crumbley where she told him that her gun was missing and he told her that she needed to call the police.
Following the call, Smith told the court that he received three more text messages from Crumbley. In the first message, Crumbley wrote that she was afraid her son may be suicidal, followed by a second message where she wrote that she "needed a lawyer," Smith said.
"Ethan did it," Crumbley wrote in the third message, Smith testified.
Smith said that he then received a second phone call from Crumbley where she asked him for a recommendation for legal counsel. Smith testified that he was "completely in shock" and "didn't know where to start" but he told Crumbley he would talk to their corporate counsel.
Shannon Smith, a defense attorney for Jennifer Crumbley, asked Smith if he had ever discussed her son's potential to carry out a school shooting prior to November 30, 2021, and he answered that he had not. Shannon Smith asked Andrew Smith about his testimony that he thought Crumbley "would have been more worried about what was going on" than keeping her job and asked him if "it's fair to say you don't know what she was worried about in that moment."
"So we can agree that while she may have been worried about her job, she could have been worried about many other topics at the same time?" Shannon Smith asked.
"Sure, yes," Andrew Smith replied, adding that he believed Crumbley was also worried about her son.