Prosecutor says she is disappointed James and Jennifer Crumbley did not express remorse
The lead prosecutor in James and Jennifer Crumbley's criminal trials said it was "disappointing" that the parents didn't express remorse.
"Feeling bad is natural, and we don't dispute that they feel bad ... that's not what's important to victims of crime," Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said to reporters after the Crumbleys' sentencing Tuesday. "What they want and need most of all is remorse, which means acknowledgment of the wrongdoing and some sort of reconciliation or apology for that — and that didn't come."
The prosecutor said she didn't think that the case would set a precedent for parents of other school shooters.
"There's a difference between precedent-setting and rare, and this is really a rare set of facts, it really is," McDonald said.
"Most of us know that you have to exercise reasonable care at least to prevent other people from the dangers that you know are foreseeable," she added.
She said her team did the "absolute best" they could, and the victim's families know that.
"It's really hard ... to remark about how hard we work and how hard it's been when you're looking in the eyes of these parents every day, who get up in unbelievable pain and grief and see this play out every day and they still go on," she said. "And so, my focus is there."