Man says ‘voices’ made him kill
NORRISTOWN >> The man accused of fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend and repeatedly striking and crushing her body with his 7,000-pound SUV outside her Whitemarsh workplace told police “voices” made him kill her, according to testimony.
“He said, ‘The voices, the voices in my head made me kill her.’ He made those statements over and over,” state police Trooper James Broderick testified on Wednesday in Montgomery County Court, recalling the apprehension of accused killer Lawrence Maurice Crawley.
Broderick and fellow state Trooper Steven Colo testified Crawley made the statements after he was removed from his blue Chevrolet Avalanche vehicle on Aug. 3, 2018, after crashing the vehicle inside the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel of the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County. Prosecutors alleged Crawley was fleeing to that area after he killed his exgirlfriend Angela Maya Stith at 2:27 a.m. Aug. 3 outside Vector Security in Whitemarsh, where Stith worked.
A jury of nine men and three women watched dramatic dash cam footage of the troopers’ following Crawley’s vehicle deep into the tunnel. At one point, Crawley’s vehicle veered out of control, bouncing off each side of the tunnel, before coming to rest against one wall. Testimony revealed Crawley had used gasoline to set himself on fire as troopers pursued the vehicle.
“You could see smoke coming from the door vents,” Broderick testified, adding smoke
poured from the vehicle when troopers reached it and opened the vehicle’s doors.
Testimony revealed Crawley did not comply with troopers’ demands to exit the damaged vehicle and troopers used pepper spray and a Taser to gain Crawley’s compliance and remove him from the vehicle.
“Once I opened the door I see he’s covered in blood. He had his left wrist sliced. He had multiple burns on his face, hands and neck,” Broderick testified.
Crawley survived and spent weeks in a western Pennsylvania hospital being treated for severe burns.
Crawley, 34, of the 800 block of North 13th Street, Philadelphia, faces charges of first- and third-degree murder and possessing instruments of crime in connection with the alleged attack of Stith. The trial before Judge Thomas C. Branca is expected to last several days.
On Wednesday, prosecutors wrapped up their case with the testimony of several eyewitnesses to the attack.
Crawley, out of earshot of jurors, advised the judge that he is not going to testify at trial.
The lawyers will give their closing arguments to the jury on Thursday morning, after which the jury will receive legal instructions from the judge and begin deliberations.
During the trial, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and co-prosecutor Allison Ruth alleged Crawley intended to kill Stith, and committed first-degree murder, when he stabbed her four times and ran over her with his SUV four times while she was on a workplace break on a rear parking lot of the security business along the 5100 block of Campus Drive.
First-degree murder, an intentional killing, is punishable of a 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 argued Crawley’s conduct was “a lesser degree of homicide.”
Third-degree murder, a killing committed with malice, carries a possible maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison.
Dr. Khalil Wardak, a forensic pathologist, testified an autopsy determined Stith died from combined blunt and sharp force injuries.
“The manner of death was determined to be homicide,” Wardak told jurors, adding Stith suffered multiple stab wounds to her back, chest and abdomen and numerous crushing wounds.
Testimony revealed one plunge of the knife was so forceful that the the handle broke off and the blade remained in Stith’s back. Stith also suffered crushing injuries and a skull fracture.
“The lower extremities had multiple fractures. The liver was completely crushed,” Wardak testified as jurors viewed several photos of Stith’s injuries on a large projection screen in the courtroom.
Several of Stith’s relatives, seated in the gallery of the courtroom, wept quietly as they listened to the disturbing testimony regarding Stith’s death.
The attack, prosecutors alleged, occurred several days after Stith ended her relationship with Crawley.
During emotional testimony, Kyle Stewart, one of Stith’s coworkers, testified he witnessed the vehicle strike Stith as he ran outside to try to help the 33-year-old mother of three as she lay on the parking lot suffering from stab wounds.
“I wanted to bring her in the building. I bent down to scoop her up. I looked behind me and saw the headlights. You could hear the engine gunning and I thought he was coming for me,” Stewart told jurors. “He was going pretty fast.
“She was conscious and she seen this car coming for her and she couldn’t move,” said Stewart, his voice quivering with emotion at times, explaining he had to jump out of the way as the vehicle barreled toward them.
County Detective Edward Schikel testified that after Crawley’s arrest, he examined the Chevrolet Avalanche. Schikel told jurors the vehicle weighed about 7,000-pounds.
“There was blood recovered from the bumper,” said Schikel, adding detectives also uncovered bloodstains on the vehicle’s undercarriage and on the exterior driver’s door.
“He said, ‘The voices, the voices in my head made me kill her.’ He made those statements over and over.”
— state police Trooper James Broderick
“She was conscious and she seen this car coming for her and she couldn’t move.”
— Kyle Stewart