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Crawford, 61, who has spent more than half his life in prison already, was convicted of felony counts of second-degree murder and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon earlier this year.
On Tuesday, Sept. 16, a judge ruled that Crawford will be sent back inside for a sentence of 25 years to life for the Dec. 4, 2012, murder of his girlfriend, Tonya Simmons.
About 11:30 a.m. on the date in question, the victim and defendant entered Crawford’s Beekman Avenue residence, though shortly after, only Crawford came out of the home to make a pair of 911 calls, alerting police that someone was injured inside the location.
Members of the New York and Mount Vernon police departments responded to the scene and found the victim dead on arrival with more than 30 stab wounds to her torso. Crawford was subsequently arrested by local police and later admitted the attack stemmed from jealousy.
According to Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, a DNA match from the federal Combined DNA Index system in July 2012 also linked Crawford to the body of Yonkers resident LaRonda Shealy on Sept. 13, 1993. This led to NYPD detectives, state police and Yonkers cold case detectives to opening an investigation, which eventually led back to Crawford.
Crawford faced two additional charges stemming from the Bronx homicide, but a mistrial was declared because the jury failed to reach a verdict.
Assistant District Attorney Patricia Murphy, chief of the Superior Court Trial Division, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Paula Branca-Santos of the Superior Court Trial Division prosecuted the case. The Bronx District Attorney handled the Bronx homicide.
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