Jury: Guilty of 1st-degree murder
Philadelphia man stabbed, ran over his ex-girlfriend
NORRISTOWN >> A jury determined a Philadelphia man intended to kill his ex-girlfriend outside her Whitemarsh workplace when he stabbed her and then repeatedly ran over her with his three-ton vehicle, crushing her to death. Lawrence Maurice Crawley, 34, showed no reaction on Thursday as a Montgomery County jury convicted him of firstdegree murder, an intentional killing, in connection with the 2:25 a.m. Aug. 3, 2018, attack of his ex-girlfriend Angela Maya Stith while she was on a workplace break outside Vector Security along the 5100 block of Campus Drive.
The attack occurred several days after Stith, a 33-year-old mother of three, ended her relationship with Crawley, prosecutors alleged. “This case was one of the worst that I have ever seen. This is the face of domestic violence,” said county District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, referring to Crawley. “It was difficult for a jury to lis
“This case was one of the worst that I have ever seen. This is the face of domestic violence. It was difficult for a jury to listen to. I thank the jurors for their heroic work because this man needs to spend the rest of his life in prison.” — Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele
ten to. I thank the jurors for their heroic work because this man needs to spend the rest of his life in prison.”
Relatives of Stith wept and hugged each other as they left the courtroom after the verdict was announced.
The jury of nine men and three women deliberated about two hours before reaching the verdict after a four-day trial before Judge Thomas C. Branca.
With its verdict, the jury rejected a defense argument that Crawley committed third-degree murder, a “rage” or heat of the moment killing that was not intentional.
Crawley, of the 800 block of North 13th Street, Philadelphia, also was convicted of charges of possessing instruments of crime, making false statements on federal firearms documents and unsworn falsification to authorities.
Crawley faces a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment on the first-degree murder charge. Branca set formal sentencing for April 3.
“He’ll spend the rest of his life in jail. He earned that,” said Steele, vowing to seek additional prison time, over and above the life term, against Crawley on the other charges of which he was convicted. “Every day that we can get on this defendant will be deserved.”
Imposing additional prison time essentially would make it more difficult for Crawley to ever have the life sentence commuted by a future governor.
“This is probably the most heinous murder that we have seen,” said co-prosecutor Allison Ruth, who argued the killing was premediated and deliberate. “The intent in this case, it was overwhelming.”
Crawley did not answer reporters’ questions as he was escorted from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies. He will remain in the county jail while awaiting sentencing.
During the trial, prosecutors showed the jury disturbing video surveillance footage from Vector Security that recorded the entire attack. Jurors also heard the chilling 911 call from one of Stith’s coworkers who witnessed the attack and frantically tried to come to her aid.
The video surveillance showed Stith, of Philadelphia, exiting a rear door of the business where she worked as a dispatch operator about 2:13 a.m. and walking to her parked Toyota sedan during a workplace break. Several minutes later, the video surveillance depicted Crawley chasing Stith on the parking lot.
Steele and Ruth argued Crawley “lay in wait” for Stith and intended to kill her when he stabbed her four times and then ran over her with his vehicle multiple times.
“When this man lost control over Maya he made the decision that if he couldn’t have her, no one could. Then he acted on that,” Steele argued during his closing statement to jurors.
Steele and Ruth said the final plunge of the knife was so forceful that the handle broke off and the blade remained in Stith’s back.
Crawley, prosecutors alleged, then got into his vehicle and “floored it,” running over Stith, crushing her ankle, her ribs, her femur, her tibia and her skull, adding Stith’s organs were “minced together” from being run over so many times.
“He turned a threeton vehicle into a deadly weapon,” Steele said.
Steele and Ruth argued Crawley committed firstdegree murder, an intentional killing, which carries the mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
But defense lawyer Carrie L. Allman suggested the incident was more akin to a “rage” or heat of the moment killing and was not intentional. Allman suggested Crawley committed “a lesser degree of homicide.”
“It’s a third-degree murder, that’s what this is. That is a rage. That is malicious. It is not a specific intent. It is rage and hurt and anger and broken heart,” Allman argued during her closing statement, suggesting the killing was not planned or deliberate. “This is out of control behavior.”
A conviction of third-degree murder, a killing with malice, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.
An autopsy determined Stith died from combined blunt and sharp force injuries.
Testimony revealed that on July 27, Stith sent Crawley a text message telling him, “Leave me alone. Stop contacting me. Stay away from me.”
Prosecutors alleged that on Aug. 2, about 12 hours before the fatal attack, Crawley tried to purchase a firearm at a Philadelphia gun shop.
However, he was turned down when a records check showed he was convicted on July 18 of a misdemeanor charge of simple assault in connection with a May 23 domestic incident following an assault of Stith in Montour County. Crawley was accused of lying about the conviction when he filled out the paperwork to purchase a gun.
Testimony also revealed that while he was at the gun store Crawley posted a note on Facebook which read, “I’ll try to do something that puts me at peace.”
Steele argued the attempted gun purchase and Facebook post were additional evidence of Crawley’s intent to kill Stith.
After the attack, Crawley fled the scene in his vehicle and was spotted several hours later by state police traveling on the westbound Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County. As troopers followed the vehicle, Crawley sliced his wrist and used gasoline to set himself on fire before crashing inside the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel of the turnpike.
Troopers testified that when Crawley was removed from his vehicle he uttered, “The voices, the voices in my head made me kill her.”
Crawley survived and spent weeks in a western Pennsylvania hospital being treated for severe burns to his face, arms and hands.