The Crumbleys are worried that they won’t get a fair trial if what Ethan wrote in his journal is admitted into court before a jury.
“Hopefully my shooting will cause Biden to get impeached,” 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley allegedly wrote in a journal entry that was disclosed in a new court filing late Wednesday.
James and Jennifer Crumbley are fighting to keep Ethan’s journal, texts to a friend, and internet searches on school shootings from being admitted as evidence when their case goes to trial this fall.
The Crumbleys also don’t want the jury to hear about their alleged affairs, pot smoking or drinking habits, horse hobby or messy house as their lawyers blasted the prosecutor Karen McDonald for trying to smear the couple and taint the jury pool by injecting inflammatory politics.
According to testimony, Ethan detailed how he would carry out the shooting in his journal, which also contain anti-Biden statements that the Crumbleys’ lawyers fear could hurt their clients. They note that Ethan referred to the president in his journal as “sleepy f—— Joe Biden,” and predicted that his actions will be so big that “Sleepy f—Joe Biden will have to make an apolg(y) to people.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Crumbley should not be found guilty or not guilty depending on the attitudes of the jurors about Presidents Biden and Trump,” defense attorneys Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman argue in court records, stressing: “Political beliefs have no legitimate role in this trial.”
Ethan’s journal includes his “detailed plan” to commit a mass shooting at his school, racial slurs such as the N-word, and complaints about his parents, teachers, school administrators, pretty girls and students.
- Crumbleys’ lawyers also want the judge to exclude Ethan’s 400 internet searches for school shootings, particularly ones in Florida showing people being killed.
- They also want to have excluded the text messages Ethan sent to a friend in which he vented about his parents lack of concern.
Among the key themes that prosecutors have hammered away at is that the Crumbleys knew their son was troubled, but never got him help, even when he was texting his mom about seeing demons and hearing voices and doors slam. Moreover, they argue, the Crumbleys failed to stop a tragedy when they had the power to act, particularly on the morning of the shooting, when they were summoned to the school over a violent drawing their son had made that included a gun and the words, “The thoughts won’t stop, help me.”