The mother of the teenager who gunned down four Oxford, Michigan, high school students in November 2021 was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday. She becomes the first parent in U.S. history to be convicted of crimes related to a mass school shooting carried out by her child.
The mother — who, along with her husband and son, will not be named per Daily Wire policy — was convicted of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of Oxford High School students Madisyn Baldwin, 17; Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; and Justin Shilling, 17, The Detroit Free Press reported. The jury began deliberations on Monday and continued for 11 hours before reaching its verdict, according to ABC News.
“I feel most of all that the cries have been heard and I feel that this verdict is going to echo throughout every household in the country,” said Craig Shilling, whose son Justin was killed in the shooting.
“We all have work now. We all know that we are to be held responsible for anything that we do,” he added.
Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that the parents failed to give their troubled son the mental health help he needed. His father also bought his son, who was 15 at the time, a 9mm handgun that he used in the deadly shooting just four days later. The shooter’s father, who is also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, faces a separate trial in March.
On the morning before the shooter’s rampage, school officials called his parents to the school after discovering violent pictures that their son had drawn on a school assignment. The school administrators reportedly encouraged the parents to take their son home and find him mental health help right away.
The shooter’s parents said they couldn’t take him home since they both had to return to work, and promised to get him help. But a few hours later, their son opened fire on his classmates, killing four and wounding seven others.
The mother’s lawyer Shannon Smith argued that the school officials didn’t appear very concerned about her son’s mental state in their meeting on the day of the shooting, adding that if the mother had known the seriousness of her son’s condition, she could have either brought him with her to work or gone home with him.
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According to evidence shown during the trial, the shooter’s mother said in a text message to Brian Meloche — a man she was having an affair with at the time of the shooting — that the shooting “could have been prevented” and blamed school staff for allowing her son to return to class.
The teenage shooter pleaded guilty to 24 counts, including first-degree premeditated murder and terrorism causing death. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in December.