OXFORD, Mich. – In another major courtroom twist Friday, a judge allowed privileged texts between the Oxford High School shooter’s mother and her attorney to be admitted into evidence at the mother’s trial.
Oakland County prosecutors argued Thursday, Feb. 1 that Jennifer Crumbley waived her attorney-client privilege while taking the stand in her own defense. Crumbley was testifying about when she and her husband were arrested in Detroit in 2021 following a statewide manhunt that ensued a few days after the Nov. 30, 2021, mass shooting.
Prosecutors have long alleged that both Jennifer and her husband were attempting to flee from the four involuntary manslaughter charges brought against them midday on Dec. 3, 2021. The couple were found lying on a mattress in an art studio in Detroit after a business owner, who has an office in the same building, identified their car and called 911.
Video shown at Crumbley’s trial this week showed a SWAT team using a steel ram to break into the suite, and subsequently arresting the parents. While on the stand, Crumbley testified that she and her husband had taken multiple Xanax pills to help them sleep, and went to sleep around 11 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2021. She said they were asleep when police arrived at the building, and had no idea what was going on until they were arrested.
But something Crumbley said during her testimony opened the door for prosecutors to get new, privileged evidence admitted into court, which prosecutors said indicate Crumbley was lying about the timeline.
When being questioned by her attorney Shannon Smith on Thursday, Crumbley specifically mentioned her phone interactions with her attorney. Prosecutors argued Thursday, and again Friday, that those statements meant the defendant waived her attorney-client privilege, even if inadvertently, related to the topic of them allegedly fleeing from authorities.
In court, that attorney-client privilege is considered waived if the privileged information is disclosed.
Here’s what Crumbley testified on Thursday, which sparked the debate:
- Smith: So you know you’re charged, and you know they want you. What was your plan at that point?
- Crumbley: I was in touch with my attorney.
- Smith: Me?
- Crumbley: You. And I was taking your advice that we were going to turn ourselves in.”
- Smith (a bit later): Ultimately, on the night of Dec. 3[, 2021,] were you aware on Friday afternoon that you could go into court that afternoon? What was your awareness?
- Crumbley: I was not aware that we could go into court that afternoon. I was just waiting on direction from you.
After more discussion on the issue Friday morning, Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews decided a string of 23 text messages between Crumbley and her attorneys could be admitted into evidence. Still, the judge said she values the attorney-client privilege, and that was the only privileged information she was allowing.
The defense had no objection to allowing that exhibit to be admitted Friday.
Crumbley claims to sleep through ‘noisy’ raid
Jennifer Crumbley and her husband were arrested at 1:34 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021 -- about half a day after charges were formally announced against them. Text message evidence shown in court this week, however, showed that Crumbley knew she might be charged as early as Dec. 1, 2021, and knew the charges would actually come through as of Dec. 2, 2021.
When the charges were announced, authorities were unable to locate the parents. Local, state and federal law enforcement pitched in on an effort to find and arrest the couple. After one of their cars was discovered at a hotel in Auburn Hills, a business owner in Detroit located their other vehicle at an industrial building in Detroit late on Dec. 3, 2021.
Dozens of officers from multiple agencies established a perimeter around the building, and divvied up which teams would search which floors, a detective testified. The first floor, where the parents were found, was searched by Detroit police’s Special Response Team (their name for their SWAT team), while more law enforcement searched the other floors.
A former Oakland County detective lieutenant testified that it was quite a noisy process in those early morning hours. But Crumbley said she and her husband slept through it, having taken four pills of Xanax each to help them sleep, since they hadn’t “in four days.”
But new evidence Friday showed Crumbley was texting her attorney beyond 11 p.m., and that she might’ve known police were there to arrest her.
---> 911 call, security cam show when Detroit business owner finds wanted parents of Oxford shooter
Prosecutor accuses Crumbley of lying
Before discussing the newly-admitted text messages, Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Marc Keast asked Crumbley Friday if she knew what a lie was, and if she understood the oath she had taken in court. Crumbley said “yes” to both questions.
Keast went on to imply that the texts show Crumbley was hiding from law enforcement, who had began surrounding the building at around 11 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2021. Despite evidence showing Crumbley had set her alarm for 6:30 a.m. the next morning, her cellphone was found turned off and stored in a bin some distance from the bed she was found on.
Keast read texts sent from Crumbley to her attorney, in which the shooter’s mother says she thinks she’s been found.
Here are the text messages between Crumbley and her attorneys on Dec. 3, 2021, that were admitted into evidence Friday:
- 7:02 p.m. - Smith to Crumbley: (We) are going to come get you guys in the morning. We do not think it will help to make a statement that you’re coming back now or that it will be tomorrow a.m. We can say that we told everyone you were coming back, and as of tomorrow a.m., you were back.
- 7:02 p.m. - Smith to Crumbley: We can show them that everything we said was going to happen, did happen.
- 7:03 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: OK
- 7:36 p.m. - Smith to Crumbley: I’m going to drive home from my office right now and call you guys in about 40-45 minutes so I can get all the bond factor information written down for (the attorneys).
- 7:37 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: OK, we’ll be waiting
- 8:54 p.m. - Smith to Crumbley: I’m going to call in one minute
- 8:54 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: OK
- 11:14 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: Think we might have found
- 11:14 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: Don’t know. Just heads up. Please check.
“That was written, but I do not believe it was written by me,” Jennifer Crumbley said of the 11:14 p.m. to Smith in her testimony. She said she and her husband were both using the phone at that time because her husband’s broke.
Keast said the following messages followed that text:
- 11:16 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: Don’t know
- 11:16 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: We might have been found
- 11:16 p.m. - Crumbley to Smith: Laying low
- 11:16 p.m. - Smith to Crumbley: Oh s---
Crumbley said she doesn’t deny that those are the records.
---> Live updates: Day 7 of trial for mother of Oxford High School shooter (Feb. 2)
Jennifer Crumbley and her husband were found at the art studio with a total of four cellphones, about $6,000 in cash, multiple articles of clothing, groceries and more. They were taken into custody and have been lodged at the Oakland County Jail awaiting trial since.
They were each charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for the four children murdered by their son at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021.
Watch: Cross-examination testimony
You can watch the entire cross-examination of Jennifer Crumbley in the video player below.