ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. — Friday's bond hearing for James and Jennifer Crumbley revealed the most extended chronicle yet on how the two spent their time between the Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School and their capture on Dec. 4 inside a Detroit warehouse.
The details came to light as 52-3 District Court Judge Julie Nicholson denied the request from the Crumbleys' attorneys to lower their $500,000 individual bonds to $100,000. They are being held in jail on four charges each of involuntary manslaughter after their son was accused of killing four classmates and wounding seven other people at Oxford High School.
After hearing arguments from Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald and the defense attorneys, Nicholson rejected the request by citing the parent's ties to family in Florida, the seriousness of the alleged crimes and their flight to an artist studio inside a warehouse on Detroit's east side, where police arrested them in the early morning hours of Dec. 4. At that time, they had $6,600 in cash, "more than a dozen credit cards and gift cards" and four cellphones, McDonald said.
The Crumbley parents are charged in connection with the Nov. 30 shooting deaths of Oxford High School students Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; and Justin Shilling, 17. Their son, Ethan, is charged with first-degree murder and terror, among other charges, and on Friday waived his probable cause hearing and preliminary exam. Flight risk is a factor in bond decisions. Bonds are determined based on several factors, including public safety and the likelihood the defendant will appear at court dates.
McDonald argued the Crumbleys pose a flight risk for two reasons. One is their family roots, which are in Florida, not Michigan. The other is the way they spent their time since the Nov. 30 shooting, during which they punched out cash from the bank, tried to sell horses and bought burner phones.
"We need to talk about and address what Jennifer and James Crumbley did on Nov. 30, just hours after their son murdered children in school," McDonald said. "They started making plans."
At 4:42 p.m. Nov. 30, four hours after the shooting, Jennifer allegedly texted a contact that "she needed to sell her horses fast," McDonald said.
Later on the day of the shooting, "they drained their son's bank account," said McDonald, taking $3,000 from Ethan and leaving him with 99 cents.
The next morning at 9 a.m., they checked into an Oakland County hotel, which was across the street from a police station, just "miles" from the courthouse, the prosecutor said. There, the conversation continued about selling the horses, possibly for $5,000, McDonald said.
At 9 a.m. Dec. 2, the day before they were supposed to turn themselves in, $2,000 was withdrawn from their bank account, the prosecutor said.
"Text messages and testimony will reveal that the Crumbleys expected to be criminally charged the next day," said McDonald, which was Dec. 3, the day in question.
On Dec. 3, the Crumbleys left the hotel at 9:30 a.m., McDonald said. They left a car behind in the hotel parking lot. A half-hour later, Jennifer Crumbley responded to text finalizing the sale of the horses.
They also withdrew another $4,000 from their account that day. Jennifer contacted artist friend Andrzej Sikora, who had the studio in Detroit, and told him they needed "a place to sit," McDonald said.
They drove down to Detroit. It was Sikora's studio where the couple were found the next day.
The Oakland County Sheriff's Office seized tablets and phones from Sikora in December, but he has not been charged in the ongoing investigation.
"Once they arrived at this building, they never left the premises except once, to smoke, and also when James Crumbley moved their car so the license plate would not be visible," McDonald said.
At 1:30 p.m., McDonald said, the Crumbleys told Sikora they were facing criminal charges and asked that he do some shopping for them — vodka, orange juice and some bedding.
The Crumbleys were scheduled for a 4 p.m. Dec. 3 arraignment at 52-3 District Court.
Instead, they were arrested about 10 hours later at the warehouse and arraigned later Saturday morning. They were given $500,000 bonds and have been jailed since.
McDonald described the Detroit warehouse where the pair were found as "an undisclosed industrial state where they tried to conceal their presence."
That attempt to conceal lasted "even up until the last moment" before they were discovered, when James Crumbley reparked their vehicle to shield its license plate from view, she said.
Even with police in the warehouse, loudly announcing their presence, "they remained behind locked doors, crouched behind a mattress, on the floor," McDonald said.
The defense has continually argued that the Crumbleys did not flee, but that instead there was a miscommunication. They claimed in a December court filing that McDonald did not return messages and held a news conference on Dec. 3 knowing that defense attorneys Shannon Smith was in a trial and Mariell Lehman was traveling back to Michigan from Florida.
"Prior to being charged and arrested, they had received and been made aware of a plethora of threats to their lives and to their safety and had to leave their home," Lehman said Friday. "The sale of their home has been necessary as it is no longer a safe location for them to live, but it has nothing to do with a flight risk."
Lehman and Smith sought to have the bonds lowered to $100,000 each, with GPS tethers, but Nicholson kept them as-is.
The defense noted an Oakland County investigator said that absent a surrender, police "could conduct a felony stop and have (them) laying face down in the street," according to a text with Smith that was submitted in a December filing.
The defense has maintained there was no attempt to flee, but a miscommunication, mixed with fear on the Crumbleys' part.
"We will get them in," Smith told the investigator. "They wouldn’t have paid us what they paid if they plan to run.”
But the Crumbleys didn't take calls from their attorneys and never reached out to police, McDonald said, even when across the street from a police station. The first time authorities reached them was on their arrest the next morning.
Part of the calculation for a bond is the prosecution's chances of convicting the defendants.
"This case is strong," Assistant Prosecutor Mark Keast. "The defendants will be convicted. Once they're convicted, they will go to prison."
The Crumbleys are scheduled before Nicholson on Feb. 8 for their preliminary examination. That hearing will determine if they will stand trial.
Toward the end of Friday's hearing, while the judge and attorneys were off-camera discussing scheduling issues, both defendants waved to each other and appeared to mouth the words "I love you.“
(Staff writer George Hunter contributed.)
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