Virginia doctor who prescribed more than 500k doses of opioids granted new trial Jury gets manslaughter case against Michigan school shooter’s mother
RICHMOND, Va. ( AP) — A Virginia doctor who was sentenced to 40 years in prison after prescribing more than half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years has been granted a new trial by a federal appeals court that found the instructions given to jurors at his trial misstated the law.
Joel Smithers was convicted in 2019 of more than 800 counts of illegally prescribing drugs.
During his trial, prosecutors said patients from five states drove hundreds of miles to see him to get prescriptions for oxycodone, fentanyl and other powerful painkillers. Authorities said Smithers headed a drug distribution ring that contributed to the opioid abuse crisis in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
In a ruling issued Friday, a three- judge panel of the Richmond- based 4th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated Smithers’ convictions and ordered a new trial.
Jurors at Smithers’ trial were instructed that in order to find Smithers guilty of illegally prescribing drugs, they must find that he did so “without a legitimate medical purpose or beyond the bounds of medical practice.”
But the appeals court found that that jury instruction was improper, citing a 2022 U. S. Supreme Court ruling that said a defendant must “knowingly or intentionally” act in an unauthorized manner to be guilty of that charge. Even though the jury convicted Smithers in 2019, his case was subject to the 2022 Supreme Court decision because his appeal was still pending when that ruling was issued.
Justice Roger Gregory, who wrote the 3-0 opinion for the 4th Circuit panel, cited Smithers’ testimony at his trial, when he said almost all of his patients had had significant car or workplace accidents and that he believed there was a legitimate medical purpose for each of the prescriptions he wrote. Gregory wrote that even though “a jury might very well not have believed Smithers’ testimony that he acted with a legitimate medical purpose,” the defense provided evidence that could have led to a finding of not guilty on each of the unlawful distribution charges against Smithers.
“In sum, because there was evidence upon which a jury could have reached a contrary finding, the instructional errors were not harmless,” Gregory wrote.
During Smithers’ trial, a receptionist testified that patients would wait up to 12 hours to see Smithers, who sometimes kept his office open past midnight. Smithers did not accept insurance and took in close to $700,000 in cash and credit card payments over two years, prosecutors said.
“We understand the 4th circuit decision following a recent change in the law and look forward to retrying the defendant, “U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh said in a statement Monday.
Beau Brindley, an attorney for Smithers, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment on the ruling.
PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan jury received instructions from a judge and began deliberations Monday in a novel trial against a school shooter’s mother who could go to prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of four students in 2021.
“You must not let sympathy, bias or prejudice influence your decision,” Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews said.
Prosecutors say Jennifer Crumbley was grossly negligent when she failed to tell Oxford High School officials that the family had guns, including a 9 mm handgun that her son, Ethan Crumbley, had used at a shooting range just a few days earlier.
The school was concerned about a macabre drawing of a gun, bullet and wounded man, accompanied by desperate phrases, on the boy’s math assignment. But he was allowed to stay in school on Nov. 30, 2021, following a roughly 12- minute meeting with Jennifer and James Crumbley, who didn’t take him home.
The teenager pulled the gun from his backpack in the afternoon and shot 10 students and a teacher, killing four peers. No one had checked the backpack.
“He literally drew a picture of what he was going to do. It says, ‘ Help me,’” prosecutor Karen McDonald said during closing arguments Friday in suburban Detroit.
Jennifer Crumbley knew the gun in the drawing was identical to the new one at home, McDonald said.
“She knew it wasn’t stored properly,” the prosecutor added. “She knew that he was proficient with the gun. She knew he had access to ammunition.”
“Just the smallest steps” by Jennifer Crumbley could have saved the lives of Hana St. Juliana, Tate Myre, Justin Shilling and Madisyn Baldwin, the prosecutor said.
About four hours into deliberations Monday, the jury sent a note to the judge asking if it could “infer anything” from prosecutors not presenting Ethan Crumbley or others to explain specifically how he got the gun from home.
“The answer
is
no.
You’re only allowed to consider the evidence that was admitted in the case,” Matthews told jurors.
The shooter, now 17, pleaded guilty to murder and terrorism and is serving a life sentence. His mother wanted to call him as a defense witness during the trial, but his lawyers said he would invoke his right to remain silent. He still might appeal his sentence.
During her closing argument last week, defense attorney Shannon Smith told jurors that a conviction would have a chilling effect on unwitting parents whose kids break the law. The tragedy, she argued, was not foreseeable.
Ethan Crumbley was a “skilled manipulator” who didn’t have mental illness, and the gun was the responsibility of James Crumbley, not his wife, Smith said.
“Unfortunately this is a case where the prosecution made a charging decision way too fast,” Smith said. “It was motivated by obvious reasons, for political gain and done for media attention.”
She said the case won’t bring justice to the victims or their families: “It certainly doesn’t bring back any lives.”
The jury of six men and six women includes some gun owners or people who grew up with firearms in their house. They said it wouldn’t interfere with their ability to be fair.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, and James Crumbley, 47, are the first parents in the U.S. to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. The latter faces trial in March.
Besides knowledge of the gun, the Crumbleys are accused of ignoring their son’s mental health needs. In a journal found by police in his backpack, he wrote that they wouldn’t listen to his pleas for help.
“I have zero help for my mental problems and it’s causing me to shoot up the ... school,” Ethan wrote.
The maximum penalty for involuntary manslaughter is 15 years in prison. The Crumbleys have been in jail for more than two years, unable to post $ 500,000 bond while awaiting trial.