(WXYZ) — The interview is over for a metro Detroit artist, but the analysis of digital devices and the scrutiny is continuing.
Artist Andrezej Sikora and his attorney Clarence Dass are awaiting the results.
Oakland County investigators took cellphones and tablets in a search warrant at Sikora’s home in Troy on Monday. That analysis will be used to verify the story investigators have been given.
Sikora is the artist who let the parents of 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, the accused Oxford High School shooter, stay in his Detroit art studio. His attorney says he became friends with the mother, Jennifer Crumbley, five years ago when both worked on ski patrol at Pine Knob Ski resort in Oakland County.
“For a 65-year-old man who immigrated here in the 1990s only, this is something he never imagined he'd ever be dealing with. But he has come to terms with the fact that he got roped into this and has instead of hiding, embraced law enforcement and shared everything he knows with law enforcement,” Dass said.
After the shooting hit the news last week Tuesday, Dass told 7 Action News his client, “sent a text to Jennifer Crumbly and asked if she was safe. Didn’t know she was involved. Didn’t know her son was involved.”
Dass says there was no response until Jennifer Crumbley called Friday morning.
“She (said she) believed charges were going to be coming at some point on Friday, according to her lawyer, and wanted to be somewhere to avoid the press and the publicity that was going to come out of that situation. So, she asked if she could stay with her husband at that studio in Detroit for a few hours until they learn of charges,” Dass said.
Dass says Skiora left his studio at 5 p.m. Friday while they were still waiting and didn’t hear anything more until the next morning when he saw on the news the manhunt ended with police finding the parents in his studio in a building on Detroit’s east side.
Jennifer and her husband James Crumbley were arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter. Authorities said they bought their son a gun for Christmas that was used in the Oxford shooting. They're also accused of failing to inform school officials about the gun the morning of the shooting when called to a school meeting with their son about a threatening drawing he made depicting a shooting.
“If he had known that they had active warrants out then, if he had known that there was manhunt going on in the area, he would have never let them stay because he has no business getting involved in this situation. He's an artist trying to do his job,” Dass told 7 Action News.
The attorney says his client is guilty of no crimes.
“Unfortunately, he's naive to the process in this country and didn't know that them talking to a lawyer meant anything other than they were talking to a lawyer,” Dass said.
The analysis of the devices could take another day or two. The Oakland County prosecutor will then make a decision on charges or clearing Sikora.
