After the 2021 Oxford High School mass shooting in Michigan, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office uncovered information that led to unprecedented charges against the shooter’s parents who were accused of purchasing the gun for their son. With so many mobile devices involved, they needed help building their case.

“As a parent, I would demand to know how this happened,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. “Those questions led to answers that revealed a level of criminal culpability. How can you walk away from that with no accountability at all?”

The parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were charged with involuntary manslaughter, the first time parents faced charges in connection with a mass shooting. This unprecedented case made national headlines and put a spotlight on McDonald and her team’s efforts to secure their conviction.

“It was clear to me very quickly that there was this mountain of evidence that may or may not be relevant on the phones that we were not finding, and that remained an incessant, torturous thing that I would never let go. I said, there’s more here and I want to find it. I want to know,” McDonald explains.

“Karen had a lot of questions about what was on the phones, what was not on the phones, and that was hard to get an answer. Cellebrite helped us through the evidence, and that really changed the game for us,” said David Williams, Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney.

Williams and McDonald say the level of personal information such as videos, recordings and social media posts painted a much different picture than what was being portrayed in the parent’s defense.

“When I found a clip that the shooter had sent his father of a gun, a gun that was on sale at about the time that the gun was purchased, I wanted to see what was on mom’s phone and what was on dad’s phone at that same time. And (Cellebrite) Pathfinder allowed us to quickly do that. It was amazing,” said Williams. “Instead of me having to open up seven phones and try to match them up and say, when the shooter sent that, uh, photo, when was it received? By whom? It would’ve taken forever.”

McDonald explains, “I didn’t have the hours or the people to do what Pathfinder did. We wouldn’t have known things. This was so blatant, blatant and egregious. It really was, instead of doing just the smallest thing, they bought him a real deadly weapon.”

Earlier this year, two separate juries in back-to-back trials found the Crumbleys guilty of four counts of involuntary manslaughter. They were sentenced a month later to 10 years in prison, which exceeded the guidelines.

Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews said in open court at the sentencing, “These convictions are not about poor parenting. These convictions confirm repeated acts, or lack of acts, that could have halted an oncoming runaway train.”

“Our eye is always towards how can we keep this the public safe, but we also very much prioritize fair and just prosecution,” McDonald said. “What is the goal here and what is the outcome we want and how should we use our discretion to get it?”

This case underscores the importance of using digital investigative solutions to piece together complex cases that involve multiple devices, ultimately leading to a sense closure and justice for the victims’ families and the community.