PITTSBURGH — Calvin Crew was found guilty on Monday of killing Christina Spicuzza, a local mother who drove for Uber.
The verdict came less than an hour after jurors arrived Monday morning, and less than 4 and a half hours total of deliberations since they were handed the case on Friday.
Crew was also convicted of kidnapping, robbery, carrying a firearm without a license, inflicting serious bodily injury, theft of a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5.
“With the abundance of evidence in this case, we wholeheartedly support the jury’s decision to convict,” said DA Zappala. “Sadly, this verdict cannot bring Christina back or change the tragedy her family has experienced with her loss, but we hope they are encouraged and find consolation in the justice served today.”
DA Zappala’s statement continues as follows:
“I would like to commend the professionals involved in investigating and prosecuting this case, the County detectives, criminalists, technicians and the prosecution trial team. There’s an incredible amount of teamwork involved in a case like this with so much technical and digital evidence. The officers involved methodically gathered the evidence and followed where it led. The trial prosecutors prosecuted the case on the objective evidence and the law.
This was a brutal senseless execution of a mother of four children simply trying to earn a living. Given the overwhelming evidence supporting this prosecution and the jury’s verdict, it is extremely disappointing to have the Public Defender’s Office attempt to characterize the investigation and prosecution as racial and political. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is despicable that they would stoop to this level simply because the evidence of guilt was so overwhelming. Their smear tactics were despicable and unprofessional.
Crew was charged because the mountain of evidence led to him and proved he committed the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, as found by the jury. On the other hand, the public defender had no evidence of racial or political motives in the charging and prosecution of this case but felt free to just make it up to promote their employer’s political agenda.
The rules of professional conduct do not provide defense counsel free reign to go into court and make baseless claims supported by nothing but desperate speculation. Those who engage in and condone such behavior should be held professionally accountable.
The Public Defender’s Office falls under the jurisdiction of the County Executive, as does the County Police. We hope the County Executive does not condone such unprofessional conduct nor condone one agency under her jurisdiction making baseless claims against another.”
We’ve reached out to the County Executive’s Office in response to Zapalla’s statement. A spokesperson declined to comment due to a gag order.
The defense told the jury on Friday that this is one big dumpster fire of a disaster, but they believe the evidence only proves a robbery, not a murder.
Whereas the prosecution told the jury when you can’t change the facts you shift the focus ending with “Justice for Christie.”
The dash cam video played over and over was the center point of both sides of this murder trial. The Commonwealth told the jury in closing statements within 19 minutes of Calvin Crew entering Spicuzza’s life she was robbed with a gun to her head.
The DA’s Office then saying one hour and seven minutes after he entered her life she was dead.
On the other side, the defense told the jury that the video was horrible and the defense attorney Andrew Howard stated, “It’s one of the hardest things to watch in my career.”
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Howard said the video only proves a robbery even pointing to the lead detective’s testimony that there is no definitive evidence on what happened in the woods.
One of the witnesses, an investigator with the public defender’s office, walked the jury through the possibility of an accidental discharge off that street in Monroeville three years ago.
The Commonwealth ended with, “Crew had a chance to make it a robbery, but he killed her even after she begged for mercy.”
A big point made by the Commonwealth and the judge is that the state does not have to prove a motive in this case just that Crew intended to kill Spicuzza.
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