As of: February 7, 2024, 11:20 a.m
By: Moritz Bletzinger
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Guilty verdict in Michigan: Oxford gunman's mother goes to prison.
© Bill Puglinao/Getty Images North America/AFP
She ignored his messages and her husband gave him a gun.
Then Ethan C. shot four people.
Now his mother has been convicted.
Pontiac – unprecedented case in the USA.
A mother is being convicted for the first time for her child's crimes, US media unanimously report.
Jennifer C.'s son killed four classmates at his high school around two years ago.
Now the jury has found his mother guilty.
She was convicted of negligent homicide.
She faces up to 15 years in prison.
The decision on the sentence will be made on April 9th.
Failure to exercise due care: mother of gunman convicted of negligent homicide
Jennifer C. insisted she was “not guilty” in court.
Nevertheless, the court considers them responsible.
In her closing argument, prosecutor Karen McDonald said the 45-year-old mother failed to "exercise ordinary care."
McDonald emphasized that “she could have locked the ammunition away.
She could have locked the gun away."
It is also reported that Jennifer C. was aware of her son's mental health problems and hallucinations.
She is said to have ignored a message from him that he had sent a few months before the crime.
In this message, the teenager begged his mother to contact him because the devil was in the house.
In court, C. claimed that she thought it was a joke.
Defense attorney Shannon Smith argued that her client should not be held accountable for her son's actions.
No one could have predicted this, she said.
In Germany, a mother was recently sentenced to life in prison for murder and breach of duty of care.
“Wish he had killed us instead”: Son gets gun for his birthday and shoots four people
Jennifer C.'s husband also did not foresee the crime.
He had bought Ethan, his stepson, the later murder weapon, a Sig Sauer pistol, as a birthday present.
He also has to stand trial, but his case is being heard separately.
The mother repeatedly emphasizes that she would have thought it impossible that her son would be capable of such a violent act.
She says, “I wish he had killed us instead.”
In November 2021, the teenager opened fire at his school in the small town of Oxford, north of Detroit.
He killed four classmates and injured six other students and a teacher.
The victims at Oxford High School were between 14 and 17 years old.
In December last year he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
(moe/AFP)
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