ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – A jury trial remains ongoing for Jacob Cronick, the Delta County man facing charges for shooting his former father-in-law, Eric Parrotta, last year.
The trial began on Monday, with witnesses testifying each day. On Thursday, Cronick himself took the stand.
The defense asked Cronick questions about his history with Eric, the father of his ex-wife, Alexandria Parrotta. Cronick detailed incidents in the years before the shooting when Parrotta made him feel “unsafe.” He described going to law enforcement and the County Clerk’s Office in hopes of securing a personal protection order against Parrotta.
Cronick told the defense that he began asking Alexandria to meet him at Escanaba Public Safety when she had to pick up their son. While he asked her to do the same when he had to pick up their son, he said Alexandria would instead tell him to go to her home or to Eric’s home.
During certain pickups, Cronick said Eric would confront him by approaching him and insulting him. He mentioned one occasion where he left without his son. Cronick testified that he believed Eric was trying to get a reaction out of him.
On the day of the shooting, January 21 of 2024, Alexandria, her partner, a friend, her uncle, and Eric went to Cronick’s home to retrieve some of Alexandria’s property. Cronick and Alexandria had finalized their divorce weeks prior. In court, Cronick said he had told Alexandria he did not mind if others came to help her, as long as Eric was not one of them.
Video from January 21 shows Cronick telling Eric several times that he did not want him there and that he needed to leave. The two are seen getting into a verbal argument, which leads Eric to knock Cronick’s phone out of his hands—the first time Eric had physically touched Cronick, according to the defendant’s testimony.
After Eric knocked his phone away, Cronick said he believed Parrotta intended to kill him.
“When he struck me, I thought… the worst came up,” Cronick testified. “Like, ‘This man, who I had found out a few months prior had stage 4 cancer, is going to be a hero for his daughter and keep her protected.’ I felt he was trying to end my life.”
Following Eric’s “strike,” Cronick grabbed him and pinned him to the hood of a vehicle. He testified that he felt one of the men, Cody Richards, jump onto his back and wrap his arm around his neck.
“I’m trying to get him to kind of go over the top of me until that part didn’t work,” Cronick told the defense. “He had latched onto my throat, so then I focused on tucking my chin… When I was pushing away, I came up like this, and then his arm came up underneath my throat, and then he was underneath my chin and we went back to the hood of the car.”
In the video of the fight, Richards can be heard saying he would “put him to sleep.”
“When you hear that, what’s going through your mind?” the defense asked Cronick.
“That I’m about to be killed,” answered Cronick. “Then I hear other voices and it’s echoing through my head that they’re telling this guy to kill me.”
Cronick said he felt panicked and started flailing his arms. He then testified that he put his hand on his chest and felt his gun. He tried to push Richards away, partially unzipped his vest, and put his hand inside to grab the gun. According to Cronick, his hand missed the gun.
“That’s where I feel hopeless, like I don’t have the gun, because I grabbed onto my shirt,” Cronick said.
Cronick eventually pushed Richards off of him and took a few steps away from the car. He testified that he believed he heard Richards say, “I got you, bitch,” and expected “more attacks.” Cronick said that is what prompted him to turn around.
After breaking away from the physical fight, Cronick is seen in the video footage taking out his gun, walking toward the others, and pushing past three of them before walking toward Eric.
When describing that moment, Cronick described his vision as if there were a sheet over his eyes, identifying the other individuals by the color of their coats, such as a “blue blob.”
“Hands are reaching out towards me, and then I got to Cody, the green coat,” he said. “… I pushed the guy in the green coat down because he was the guy that was willing to kill me, still yelling, still hostile with me… My phone is my lifeline—I don’t have a landline—and I have to get back to my phone.”
Cronick testified he was trying to get back to the spot where he lost his phone. In that moment, he said he only knew where Richards was. He said he felt a tug on his vest as he watched Richards walk away.
“My head turns from the green towards where I’m being pulled, and that’s when I see somebody coming back towards me doing this at me,” Cronick said, stretching out his right arm.
The individual with their arm stretched out was Eric. According to his testimony, Cronick believed Eric was holding a gun and was “about to shoot” him.
That is when Cronick fired his gun, hitting Eric in the abdomen. He said he did not catch a “glimpse” of Eric’s face until after the shot was fired.
Others in the group had called for law enforcement before the shot was fired. Afterward, Cronick also called Central Dispatch to let them know he had shot someone on his property.
According to responding officer Sergeant Mike Groleau, Cronick was cooperative when they arrived. Cronick is seen in body camera footage sitting outside with his hands up as the officers approached him.
The County Prosecutor’s questioning largely revolved around Cronick’s failure to mention to authorities that he thought Eric had a gun. Groleau testified that it did strike him as “odd” that Cronick would not mention another firearm, saying he had not seen instances of subjects forgetting to mention another gun in other shooting cases.
Both the prosecution and the defense have rested their cases. Cronick faces one charge of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and a felony firearm charge.
Trial proceedings will resume on Friday, and WZMQ 19 will continue to cover the case as it develops.
