We want to begin tonight with the groundbreaking verdict against a Michigan mother whose teenage son killed four classmates in a school shooting in 2021. The jury of six women and six men found J.C guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter for allowing her trouble son access to a gun, despite warning signs of his declining mental health. This is noteworthy, because it’s the first time in the United States that a parent has been convicted in the deaths of a mass school shooting committed by their child. Prosecutors charged C with four counts, one for each of the four students killed at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021. Well, tonight we are hearing from the jury foreperson for the first time about what sealed the mother’s fate. Her son E pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

J.C closed her eyes at times as the decision was read. The jury foreperson said their decision came down into a single factor. It was November 2021 when C’s then fifteen-year-old son E shot and killed four students at Oxford High School. Seven other people were wounded. After the shooting C and her husband fled. They were found hiding in a Detroit industrial building as officers closed in. Prosecutors had argued C failed to address her son’s deteriorating mental health before the shooting, allowing him to have the gun despite signs that he was in mental distress. And refused to take her son home the day of the shooting after a school meeting to discuss disturbing drawings he made.