Case held for trial
CHICORA — Joshua and Sarah Crawford were still newlyweds.
But their lives together ended the night of Dec. 4, according to court testimony, when Joshua Crawford fatally shot his wife of just three months in their home in Donegal Township.
The problems of that day began when the couple quarreled. Crawford, 30, told his wife he was leaving the house on East Slippery Rock Road to see his 5-year-old son from a previous relationship.
“She didn't like that,” he told state police, said Trooper Nathan Brown, the lone witness to testify Tuesday at Crawford's preliminary hearing in Chicora.
The defendant claimed that during their argument, 30-year-old Sarah — herself the mother of four children — called him names, including “momma's boy,” police said.
Crawford eventually fetched his .30-06 rifle tucked in a corner nearby. He had planned to go deer hunting the next morning.
It was about 9 p.m. when he grabbed an already loaded magazine, placed it in the rifle, loaded a round and rested the barrel under his chin.
“He said he was going to take his own life,” Brown said during questioning by prosecutor Russ Karl, a county assistant district attorney.
Crawford squeezed the trigger. But, the defendant asserted during an interview at the police barracks, the gun didn't fire.
He removed the magazine, placed it back into the gun. Again, he recounted to police, he aimed the gun at himself.
Seated on the living room sofa, Sarah was “still yelling at him, calling him names,” Brown said, reciting Crawford's account to police. He claimed she even encouraged him to shoot himself, according to court documents.
But this time when he squeezed the trigger, the rifle was pointed at his wife. And this time, he admitted, it fired.
Crawford called 911. “He said he just shot his wife. He didn't mean to,” Brown testified. “He said he shot her and she's dead.”
He walked out of the house, got into his Jeep and waited for police.
The preliminary findings of an autopsy later indicated Sarah died of a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Brown, during cross-examination by Crawford's attorneys, public defenders Joe Smith and Kimberly Hudak, acknowledged that the defendant told investigators that he had tried to commit suicide that night as well as on one prior occasion.
Smith also disclosed that his client, who had no prior criminal record, was placed on suicide watch at the Butler County Prison following his arrest.
District Judge Lewis Stoughton ended the 30-minute hearing by ordering Crawford be held for trial on charges of homicide and aggravated assault. He remains in the county prison without bail.Outside the courtroom, Smith's attorneys extended their condolences to Sarah's family.“Obviously this is a tragedy given the nature of the case and at this time of the year,” Smith said. “Two families have been ripped apart.He and Hudak hinted that their client's mental health could be a part of the defense strategy.They said they could also argue that it was a classic voluntary manslaughter case, saying that the killing was committed in the heat of passion after the victim demeaned and made fun of her husband.Voluntary manslaughter carries up to 20 years in prison.In Pennsylvania, a general count of homicide includes first-, second- and third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.First-degree murder, the most serious offense which is punishable by execution or life in prison without parole, is a premeditated, intentional killing.It would be unlikely that Crawford would face second-degree murder since that charge requires killing someone in the commission of another felony.Third-degree murder involves an indifference to one's own actions potentially causing another's death. It carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.Involuntary manslaughter, the least severe of the homicide offenses, is an accidental killing. The maximum penalty is imprisonment for five years.
