From an article in the Cleveland paper:
“Crawford’s 50-page motion for early release, filed in 2005, displayed flourishes of creativity and flair in a failed attempt to dazzle Russo.
He wrote that he had “used this period of incarceration as a time of inner-reflection, self-analysis and self-development.”
Davon Crawford’s violent life stretches back to his teens
Davon Crawford has been in trouble with the law since he was a teen. Below are some of his interactions with police, the courts and the prison system:
• Feb. 18, 1993: At age 16, Crawford is caught by Cleveland police joyriding in a stolen car.
• March 20, 1993: Now 17, he carjacks a woman’s 1986 Chevrolet Cavalier while wielding a black .45-caliber-style BB gun in Warrensville Heights. The same day he is charged with assaulting two Shaker Heights police officers with a car after trying to run them over.
• Aug. 12, 1993: He is sent to the Ohio Department of Youth Services. He is denied early release twice.
• May 24, 1994: Crawford, at age 18, is released from the juvenile prison.
• Nov. 24, 1994: He is arrested with a relative in a stolen car. Charges are later dropped.
• March 22, 1995: Crawford, 19, is arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Joseph Smith. He and Smith, 22, were arguing over a girlfriend. A plea deal dropped the firearm charges and Crawford pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to between five and 25 years in prison.
• April 3, 2000: At age 24, he is released from prison on parole.
• March 2, 2002: Crawford is arrested for shooting at his then-wife because she doesn’t want to go out for his 26th birthday. She was holding their child at the time. He is sentenced to five years in prison.
• Feb. 21, 2007: Crawford, age 30, is released from prison and placed on parole for at least a year.
• Thursday: Just days after getting married and celebrating his 33rd birthday, Crawford shoots and kills his new wife, Lechea Crawford, his sister-in-law, Rose Stevens, and her three children — 2-year-old twins Deon and Davion Primm and Destanee Woods, 5.
• Friday: Police find Crawford near West 128th Street and Linnet Avenue after a 20-hour manhunt. He shoots and kills himself.
Crawford said he had “received an insurmountable amount of love and support from his family and friends who would assist him in making his re-entry into society a successful one.” And he pleaded for a “second chance at living a law-abiding life.”
By all accounts, Crawford did take advantage of his years behind bars. He joined the NAACP, and completed classes on stress and anger management, family skills, domestic violence, child abuse and rage-control. He also tutored fellow inmates and won the Sportsmanship Award and championship trophy in the prison basketball league, according to 29 certificates filed with the motion.
“[I’m] becoming somewhat of a role model in the eyes of young fathers throughout the institution,” Crawford claimed in his letter to the judge.
Tragic for his victims.
Bet he didn’t even know his father ... he appears to fit the profile of the typical prison inmate. He was a ticking time bomb.
Oh, and BTW, I’m from this area. W. 128 and Linnet is about a mile, or slightly less, from where I grew up (In fact, the police spokesman in the story, Officer Stacho, was a neighbor of ours)
It was a working class blue collar neighborhood, and used to be, ahem, non-diverse.People used to leave their doors unlocked. Last time I was there, a couple years ago, I noted the security company signs in front yards of small bungalows, the many unkempt houses, where they used to all be quite nice, and the security bars on doors and windows.
I’m glad they’ve made so much progress. It’s so much more vibrant now and the flava’s much more fresh.
He reminds me of the kid in Prince George’s Co., Md., who disarmed and killed two policemen in the processing area of the county jail, went to prison for several years, black people protested the injustice of him being locked up for killing two white cops, gets paroled in the mid-90s and goes and robs a bank and gets killed. Just another misunderstood youth.
“He is sentenced to five years in prison.”
He gets five years for shooting his wife, after being imprisoned already for voluntary manslaughter? Was the judge a Democrat?