Foreman of James Crumbley jury says gun storage was key issue for him, but not all jurors – By Tresa Baldas (Detroit Free Press) / March 17, 2024
In the end, it was about how the gun was stored — at least for the jury foreman.
Two days after announcing the historic guilty verdict, the jury foreman in the James Crumbley involuntary manslaughter trial spoke to the Free Press about the painstaking work in deciding the fate of the Oxford school shooter’s father, saying what drove him to convict more than anything else was how the gun was stored.
According to trial testimony, James Crumbley told police that he had hidden the gun — which his son would use to commit the 2021 massacre — in his bedroom armoire, unloaded in a case; and that the bullets were stored in a separate drawer under some jeans.
That wasn’t good enough for the 65-year-old jury foreman, a grandfather of three who grew up with guns in the Upper Peninsula, and works for a residential trash company. The jurors have not been named publicly, and the foreman spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his privacy.
