PONTIAC, Mich. — James Crumbley, whose teenage son killed four students in the 2021 Oxford High School shooting, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter by an Oakland County, Mich., jury Thursday in a verdict that caps two separate trials that made Crumbley and his wife the first parents of a school shooter to face homicide-level charges for their child’s crime.
Washington
Father of Oxford shooter found guilty of involuntary manslaughter
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for nearly 11 hours before finding Crumbly, 47, guilty of all four involuntary manslaughter counts. The verdict concluded the brisk eight-day trial that largely lacked the drama and hostility between the defense and prosecutors seen in Jennifer Crumbley’s trial, which ended last month with her conviction on four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
The Crumbleys’ son, Ethan, was sentenced last year to life without parole for killing Hana St. Juliana, 14; Tate Myre, 16; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17, and injuring seven others in the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting. The shooter, who was 15 years old when he committed the killings, was charged as an adult and later pleaded guilty to 24 charges, including first-degree murder and terrorism. On the day of the shooting, he hid in his backpack a 9mm Sig Sauer gun that his father bought four days prior as an early Christmas gift.
James and Jennifer Crumbley faced identical charges but were tried separately in a closely watched case that sits at the vanguard of a new strategy by some prosecutors to look more broadly at who can or should be held accountable when a child harms others with a gun. Sentencing for both Crumbleys is set for April 9.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald took the rare step of charging the Crumbleys within days of the shooting, and that move has since been followed in cases like the deadly 2022 Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, Ill.: Prosecutors last year secured a guilty plea from the shooter’s father for misdemeanor reckless conduct for his role in facilitating his son’s gun access.
James Crumbley was silent and shook his head as the jury foreperson read the verdict. Meanwhile, Nicole Beausoleil, Baldwin’s mother, leaned forward and cried. As the courtroom cleared, families of the victims stopped to shake hands and hug McDonald.
In an emotional news conference following the verdict, McDonald and the parents of the victims called out the urgency of curbing gun violence and improving mental health support for children.
“I refuse to take a victory lap with these prosecutions, it will not bring back these kids,” McDonald said, noting that while the three convictions were critical, they alone won’t solve gun violence.
“Gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in this country and it is a public health crisis,” McDonald said. “And we will not be able to address it until we start treating it like a public health crisis — and yes, access to guns is a critical piece of that.”
Steve St. Juliana, Hana’s father, and Buck Myre, Tate’s father, both said tackling gun violence and mental health are bipartisan issues that demand immediate action.
“We complain about Second Amendment rights, or we say, ‘Oh there’s not enough money […] for mental health issues,” St. Juliana said. “We can put people on the moon and we can build skyscrapers [but] we can’t keep … our kids safe in schools. I think people just need to wake up.”
Gun-control advocates praised the verdict. Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, said parents have a responsibility to prevent children from accessing guns.
“Once again, today’s guilty verdict of James Crumbley further underscores this critical duty of responsible gun ownership,” Suplina said. “The deadly shooting at Oxford High School in 2021 should have been prevented had Jennifer and James Crumbley taken basic precautions, like securely storing firearms in the home, to prevent their 15-year-old son from bringing a gun to school and killing four children and wounding seven others.”
Much evidence and nearly all of the witnesses from James Crumbley’s trial were already previewed in his wife’s trial. The second time around, the trial moved quicker, with fewer clashes between lawyers and more precise arguments from each side. Most notably, after Jennifer Crumbley gave testimony that may have doomed her for the jury, James Crumbley decided not take the stand in his own trial; the defense’s only witness was Karen Crumbley, his sister.
The prosecution’s overarching argument remained the same: James Crumbley bought a gun for a teen who was clearly troubled, failed to secure it, and failed to take steps before the shooting and on that morning that could have prevented the eventual tragedy.
“It only took one tragically small measure of ordinary care to avoid four deaths,” McDonald said during closing arguments.
Prosecutors pointed to the morning of the shooting, when the Crumbley parents were summoned to the school after a teacher saw their son draw pictures of a gun, a bullet-riddled body and a cry-laughing face on a math assignment alongside phrases like, “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me,” “the world is dead,” and “blood everywhere.” McDonald said Crumbley failed a legal duty to prevent his son from harming others with actions that were or should have been “foreseeable” to Crumbley.
The jury saw journal entries where the shooter wrote desperate musings like: “I have zero HELP for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the f—ing school” and “I want help but my parents won’t listen to me so I can’t get any help.”
Jurors also saw the shooter’s text to his friend where he wrote, “I told my dad to take me to the doctor yesterday, but he gave me some pills and told me to suck it up.”
McDonald said Crumbley knew his son was having some kind of trouble as she ticked off the clues: His son was upset about the family dog dying, about his friend moving away, about his grandmother dying, about pandemic isolation; he knew his son had looked up bullets and watched violent videos — and had seen the drawing the morning of the shooting.
“How many times does this kid have to say it?” McDonald said, raising her voice during closing.
Donning a pair of blue gloves, McDonald picked up the murder weapon during the final part of her closing and quickly inserted a cable lock into the gun.
“It only takes ten seconds. Ten seconds of the easiest, simplest thing,” McDonald said. The cable lock was later found in the home, unused, and with an accompanying safety manual.
Defense attorney Marielle Lehman said the charges against Crumbley are “assumptions and hindsight.”
It’s easy to look back at warning signs and call them obvious, Lehman said. Prosecutors presented the shooter’s journal entries that detailed his desire — and later plans — to shoot up the school, as well as text messages with his best friend where he talked about handling the gun his father purchased.
Lehman said there was no evidence Crumbley saw his son’s journal or text messages with friends, or knew his son accessed guns and ammunition without supervision. She also cited a prosecutor’s witness, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Agent Brett Brandon, who testified “‘there are multiple ways to store a firearm responsibly,’ not just the way the prosecution described,” Lehman said.
Crumbley told sheriff’s deputies during an interview following the shooting that he kept the gun hidden in a case in his bedroom armoire and hid the bullets separately under a pile of jeans.
Lehman sought to distance Crumbley from the prosecution’s characterization that the weapon belonged to the shooter.
“If it really were his son’s gun, why was it hidden in [James’] bedroom? In a location his son was not aware of?” Lehman said.
The defense also asserted publicly for the first time that while Crumbley knew his son had access to a gun, the school did, too.
School staffers testified they thought the shooter was troubled, but saw him more as a danger to himself rather than others.
Neither the parents nor school staff searched the shooter’s backpack before he was sent back to class. Little more than two hours later, Crumbley learned there was a shooting at the school and dialed 911 explaining a gun was missing from the home and that he and his wife had been called to speak with his son’s counselor that morning.
“I think my son took the gun,” Crumbley is heard on tape saying frantically. “I’m freaking out.”
Shannon Smith, an attorney for Jennifer Crumbley, said she and her client were declining interviews.
“We believe the victims, their families, and the community need and deserve the space and time to begin healing from this tragedy,” Smith said in a statement late Thursday.
This story is from an installment of The Oeno Files, our weekly insider newsletter to the world of fine wine. Sign up here.
While Washington State has become well known for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-style blends in recent years, it is also home to many producers making outstanding Syrah. With just a 40-year history of cultivation in the state, Syrah is now the second most-produced red wine there as well as its best-kept secret. First planted in Washington in 1986, some early releases were treated like Cabernet Sauvignon with a lot of new oak and one-size-fits-all production method, but over time a broad spectrum of expressions has arisen among the state’s Syrahs.
Elsewhere in the U.S.A. it might seem like wineries are holding back the most exciting bottles for their neighbors, but Washington Syrah is more widely available than one might think, especially on restaurant tables. Landry’s Inc.—which operates more than 500 restaurants across the country including steakhouses such as Morton’s, Del Frisco’s, and the Palm—serves more than a dozen Washington Syrahs and a wide range of Syrah blends from the state. Scott Tarwater, corporate director of wine and special events, describes Washington Syrah as “a rugged, mountain man, unshaven, but worldly, down to earth, and plain spoken.” While he enjoys it for its savory character, he also likes that it is full of jammy notes such as boysenberry, black raspberry, and pomegranate alongside hints of ripened olives and pipe tobacco.
One of the drivers of quality in the last 20 years is the adoption of Old World techniques like stem inclusion and the use of concrete vessels, large‑format oak casks, and neutral oak barrels to let the fruit do the talking. Improved vineyard techniques have allowed for site expression to become clearer as well, with the Rocks District and Royal Slope showing savory and mineral characteristics, Red Mountain and Horse Heaven Hills bringing out more power and ripeness, and Yakima Valley showcasing a mix of the two styles.
Matt Reynvaan, founder and winemaker of R|A Family Wines, makes his JDA Project Syrah from a vineyard in the Rocks District that is defined by ancient riverbed soils layered with dense cobblestone. “These stones retain and radiate heat, lending intensity, structure, and unmistakable minerality to the fruit,” he explains. Replanted in 2020, the vineyard was designed with clonal diversity and precision farming practices tailored block by block. “Syrah is interplanted with small amounts of Viognier, and each section contributes a unique dimension, from power and structure to elegance and purity, resulting in a wine that is both complex and site driven,” Reynvaan says.
DeLille’s vineyards
DeLille
At Two Vintners, winemaker and partner Morgan Lee produces four different Syrahs including a Columbia Valley cuvée, a Rocks District bottling and single-vineyard expressions from Horse Heaven Hills and Yakima Valley, working with 13 distinct vineyards across six AVAs. “Each patch of dirt puts a stamp of individuality on the wine,” he says. “The beauty of Syrah is that it absorbs its surroundings like nothing else. It is a chameleon. It is so exciting to taste these individual parcels side by side and see how thrillingly different they are from one another.” Leaning heavily into a Northern Rhône style in his vineyard sourcing, Lee also employs Rhône techniques like native-yeast fermentation and whole-cluster pressing.
Washington’s first Syrah was planted in the Red Willow Vineyard in the foothills of the Cascades in the far northwest portion of the Yakima Valley by Mike Sauer in 1986, and winemaker Nick Bernstein utilizes fruit from that original block for DeLille Red Willow Syrah. “The Syrah here thrives on steep slopes of poor volcanic soils and creates powerful wine with deep concentration,” Bernstein says. In addition to that and DeLille’s Grand Ciel estate vineyard on Red Mountain, Bernstein also buys fruit from Boushey Vineyard, whose proprietor Dick Boushey has been a prominent grower for 45 years. This cooler site allows for more hang time, flavor development, and acid retention, leading to an earthier Syrah with dark fruit notes.
The wide diversity of Syrah can be seen in Liminal’s two offerings, High Canyon Syrah and Block 16 Syrah, which come from blocks in the WeatherEye Vineyard in the Red Mountain AVA that are about 500 yards apart but differ in aspect, elevation, and clonal selection. Liminal winemaker and partner Chris Peterson says the High Canyon block has elements of black fruits, minerals, and cured olive that remind him of Côte-Rôtie. “This is why we co-ferment with about 4 percent Viognier and choose the specific barrels to age it in and accentuate these aspects,” he explains. Meanwhile, the Block 16 exhibits the “wild herb, cured meats, and firm structure” characteristics that recall Cornas, so he ages it in 500-liter puncheons, with a style of new barrel “that shows off this more feral side.”
One of the newest additions to the Evergreen State scene is Dossier Wine Collective, whose head winemaker Billo Naravane crafts its flagship Syrah with an eye on the Northern Rhône, especially Côte-Rôtie and Cornas. Sourced from three vineyards, it offers the aromatic elegance and finesse of Côte-Rôtie alongside the structure, focus, and depth of Cornas. “Our use of concrete during fermentation is intentional. Concrete preserves purity and freshness while lending the wine a tighter, more focused profile, a hallmark we admire in many traditional Northern Rhône Syrahs,” Naravane says.
On the east coast, diners at JF Restaurant’s eateries can enjoy Syrah from Walla Walla and Columbia Valley. Beverage director and partner Amy Racine tells clients unfamiliar with the style that “Washington Syrah is a crossover between the States and Rhône Valley. It has a savory, peppery backbone similar to the northern Rhône and a ripe and juicy fruit you can find in the States.” Calling it “a category that rewards curiosity,” she tells Robb Report, “Most guests come in with a fixed idea of what Syrah is supposed to taste like, usually a Rhône reference point, and Washington Syrah surprises them by being a little familiar yet entirely its own thing.”
Do you want access to rare and outstanding reds from Napa Valley? Join the Robb Report 672 Wine Club today.
Authors
Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen
Washington
Divorces granted July 2-8 in Washington, Benton counties | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The following divorces granted were recorded July 2-8 in the Benton and Washington county clerks’ offices:
BENTON COUNTY
25-1094. Heather Jones v. Michael Mazzarisi
25-1993. Sarah Waddle v. Brandon Waddle
26-46. Samantha Hines v. Garrett Hines
26-266. Donna Boyd v. Russell Boyd
26-329. Tara Whitwam v. Brett Whitwam
26-354. April Timboe v. Matthew Timboe
26-397. Troy Hull v. Kaley McManamon
26-419. Mark Hagel v. Michelle Hagel
26-437. Deborah Luper v. Donald Luper
26-470. Amanda Russell v. Christopher Russell
26-561. Audrey Mosher v. Dustin Mosher
26-562. Jacob King v. Ashley King
26-649. Chris Edwards v. Sara Edwards
26-664. David Carpenter v. Hannah Holtrey
26-774. Lauren Armfield v. Alexander Armfield
26-775. Sandra Saldana v. Luis Saldana
26-785. Maritza Campos v. Luis De Los Santos
26-798. Darell Shepard v. Rachel Lipscomb
26-802. Jeffery Nicholas v. Tracy Nicholas
26-809. Alicia Moreland v. Travis Moreland
26-814. Mellisa Dugger v. Matthew Crowne
26-817. Sabra Utting v. Derek Utting
26-825. Laura Wortman v. Brian Wortman
26-827. Laura Dean v. Seth Dean
26-845. William Austen v. Krystal Austen
26-846. Janine Robin v. Henry Robin
WASHINGTON COUNTY
24-472. Breayonda Bendickson v. Zackery Thompson
25-1333. Joshua Stephens v. Tiffany Pershall
25-1475. Jacqueline Lybrand v. Zachary Lybrand
25-1720. Jennifer McMahon v. Timothy McMahon
26-10. Janiky Rosario Madera v. Angel Ortiz Fuentes
26-225. Carol Kaufman v. Charles Axtell
26-268. Elizabeth Lasiter v. Prashanth Kumaresan
26-367. Shawn Harp v. Angela Harp
26-414. Patricia Johnson v. Robert Pritchard
26-518. Francisco Ramirez v. Nicole Franz
26-633. Debra Andrews v. Randy Brown
26-695. Jorge Azahares v. Dianelis Rodriguez
The Washington Huskies saw one of their most hotly contested offensive line targets in the 2027 class go elsewhere on Saturday afternoon when four-star offensive lineman DaJohn Yarborough announced his pledge to the California Golden Bears
The 6-foot-5, 340-pound product of Basha High School in Arizona, who is ranked as the nation’s No. 426 overall prospect and No. 25 interior offensive lineman by the 247Sports Composite, picked coach Tosh Lupoi and the Golden Bears out of a final four that also included Florida State, Mississippi State, and UW.
Although his junior year was cut short due to a fractured ankle, Fisch and offensive line coach Michael Switzer kept up a strong relationship with the hulking prospect, who has the size, physicality, and skill set the pair looks for from early contributors up front. However,
“The big man slides smoothly in pass protection and balances his weight well, always finding himself on the winning end of collisions with defenders,” Huskies Wire’s Alex Katson wrote in an evaluation of his film. “With such prototypical size and technique, Yarborough profiles as a player who could find himself in the NFL rather quickly with the right coaching staff during his time in college.”
As Washington continues to build up its offensive line for the rigors of the Big Ten, Yarborough would have been viewed as a promising building block alongside Freshman All-American John Mills, former five-star Kodi Greene, and former four-star Champ Taulealea, who should make up the core of Switzer’s unit in 2027.
While the Huskies had consistently been viewed among the top suitors for Yarborough’s services, but Lupoi’s staff has shown early that it can make a big impact quickly on recruits all over the West. Without Yarborough, Washington’s 2027 class consists of three offensive linemen: four-star interior prospect Gecova Doyal, four-star center Reis Russell, and three-star offensive tackle Tye Kennedy.
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