Accused killer denies informant slaying, claims cell phone planted
Accused killer Price Montgomery told authorities that he was “surprised” to learn that Tina Crawford had been killed in August 2014 and said he didn’t believe she was cooperating against him, a federal agent testified Tuesday.
Maurice Ferentino, a senior agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said he interviewed Montgomery Feb. 2 and 3, 2015, after his arrest in Columbus, Ohio, where U.S. marshals had tracked him down after the killing.
He said Montgomery denied any involvement with Ms. Crawford’s death, saying he was in New Jersey with a former girlfriend when he learned of it, and that Ms. Crawford had no knowledge of what agents say was his massive heroin distribution network.
“She didn’t know anything about anything,” Montgomery said, according to Agent Ferentino.
But prosecutors said she knew plenty because she was his heroin courier on trips to Newark and was about to tell Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Nescott all about it.
So he killed her Aug. 22, 2014, as she was leaving for the meeting at the U.S. courthouse with her mother, Patsy, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Montgomery, of Mount Washington, is on trial before U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak on charges of killing a federal witness as well as drug and gun counts related to his alleged heroin operation. James Perrin, his close associate, is also on trial on drug and gun counts but not the killing.
Agent Ferentino, whose agency became involved in the case at the request of the Pittsburgh police homicide squad, said Montgomery was living in an upscale townhouse in Columbus and had fake identification when the marshals found him.
He said that when he asked Montgomery why he had fled Pittsburgh after the killing, he said Montgomery told him he was afraid he was next to be killed.
But Agent Ferentino said Montgomery had no explanation for why his cell phone was found at the scene of the killing at 931 Cherokee St., where at least two hoodie-wearing gunmen shot Tina Crawford eight times and badly wounded her mother as they were getting into their car.
Montgomery said that police “may have planted” the phone at the scene, Agent Ferentino said. He also said Montgomery accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of stealing hundred of thousands of dollars from his Mount Washington home, which he rented from former Pittsburgh Steeler Deshea Townsend, during a raid June 8, 2014.
Much of Tuesday’s testimony focused on DNA evidence taken from that cell phone, which agents believe Montgomery dropped after he and a second man, whom prosecutors have said was Glenn Thomas of Manchester, opened fire with two guns on the two women.
The phone is the only physical piece of evidence to tie Montgomery to the scene.
Agent Ferentino said that when ATF agents came to swab his cheek for a DNA sample to compare to samples from the phone, Montgomery asked, “Is this about Tina Crawford?”
Thomas has not been charged with her killing. He pleaded guilty last month to being an accessory after the fact. He admitted that he had another man drive the Jeep used in the killing, which is registered to his sister, to Virginia and had his sister sign it over to the cousin of a witness for a dollar. In wiretaps, the conspirators refer to the vehicle as the “Booty buggy.” “Booty” is Thomas’ nickname.
In a previous court proceeding, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney said Thomas was the second gunman with Montgomery on Aug. 22, 2014.
“They went together and they killed Tina Crawford,” he said, “because she was going to cooperate against Price Montgomery.”
Later in Tuesday’s testimony, Ms. Crawford’s former partner, Tequila Pritchard, told the jury that Tina began making drug runs to New Jersey for Montgomery in September 2013 for which he paid her $2,000 a trip in cash. The pair spent the money, but Ms. Pritchard said the drug running caused a rift in their relationship. Then, the day after agents raided Montgomery’s house on June 8, 2014, they searched the Manchester home that Ms. Crawford and Ms. Pritchard shared.
Ms. Pritchard said Ms. Crawford later told her that agents had explained to Tina that they had followed her to New Jersey on a drug run, they knew she was a courier and that they were after Montgomery. That night or the next, Ms. Pritchard said, Montgomery visited their home. Ms. Pritchard said she told him he was not welcome in the house, so he and Ms. Crawford talked on the porch.
Ms. Crawford later told her partner that Montgomery assured her that he would “get off,” or beat any charges against him, and that there was nothing to worry about. She said she didn’t say anything to Montgomery about the search, but Ms. Pritchard said Tina’s personality changed after that meeting. Where before she had been “vibrant,” now she was stressed.
Ms. Crawford moved out in July and into her mother’s house. Ms. Pritchard moved in with her cousin and spent some of her time at Patsy’s house with Ms. Crawford. On Aug. 21, she said Ms. Crawford received a call from her lawyer.
“She said they wanted her to appear before a grand jury,” Ms. Pritchard said.
She said she was at her cousin’s house the next day when she learned Ms. Crawford had been killed.