Pitcairn man charged in Uber driver's death shouldn't face death penalty, public defender's office says

The Allegheny County Public Defender’s office said in a court filing it does not have enough death-penalty qualified attorneys to represent the man accused of killing an Uber driver in February.

In a motion filed earlier this month, the PD’s office said that the district attorney’s office filed notice in April that it would seek capital punishment against three men in three separate cases.

The PD’s office said that creates an “incredible burden” for the office.

In a wide-ranging motion filed with Common Pleas Court Judge Edward J. Borkowski, the public defender’s office cited a number of reasons why it believes the DA’s office ought to be forced to withdraw notice seeking capital punishment against Calvin Crew, who is charged with killing Christi Spicuzza on Feb. 10.

The PD’s office said it has only four death-penalty qualified attorneys, but it is handling two death-penalty cases and has one pending. The office added that it doesn’t believe there are sufficient aggravating circumstances to warrant death against Crew, and it also accused the DA’s office of violating a gag order in the case by releasing documents and evidence to the media.

Crew, 23, of Pitcairn, is accused of killing Spicuzza after she picked him up in her car the night of Feb. 10.

Police said that Spicuzza’s dashboard camera recorded footage of Crew putting a black handgun to her head and her begging for her life.

Within an hour and 15 minutes, police said Spicuzza had been shot to death and her body left in a wooded area of Rosecrest Drive in Monroeville.

Police found her car two days later, and a delivery driver spotted the body four hours after that. The dashboard camera was found on a Penn Hills street.

Crew was charged on Feb. 17 with criminal homicide and related counts.

On March 10, following extensive media coverage of the case, the public defender’s office filed a motion seeking a gag order. The parties agreed, and it was issued by the court on March 15.

On April 28, the DA’s office filed notice that it would seek the death penalty against Crew. It cited two aggravating factors, including that the defendant has a significant history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence.

The defense said Crew has no such previous convictions.

Instead, the prosecution claims that if a jury finds Crew guilty of one of the violent felony charges in the Spicuzza case, that would apply as the aggravator, giving him a history of felony convictions involving the use or threat of violence at time of sentencing.

In its motion, the PD’s office calls that reasoning “tortured.” It argued that “significant history” speaks to the defendant’s “history distinct and apart from the factual scenario that gave rise to the homicide.”

The public defender’s office said that Crew should not be subject to the death penalty.

“There is nothing unique about the facts of this case, nor the prior criminal history of Mr. Crew to justify a capital sentence,” the office wrote.

The PD’s office also argues in its motion that it does not have adequate staff to defend Crew in a capital case.

Currently, there are four attorneys in the PD’s office who meet the qualifications under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure to represent defendants charged in capital cases, according to the motion. The attorneys assigned to Crew’s case, Joshua Roberts and Tashawna Page, are not among them.

“The commonwealth’s decision to seek death in this case necessitates the disqualification of his attorneys, who have already invested significant time and resources into his defense,” the motion said. “The commonwealth’s intention to seek death at this time prejudices Mr. Crew because it necessitates a disruption of his defense team and a need to start from scratch with new counsel.”

The PD’s office also argued that the prosecution has violated the gag order in the case by allegedly providing notice to the media of its intention to seek the death penalty and by providing to the media the dashcam video from the inside of Spicuzza’s car that night prior to both being filed with the court.

In a response filed on Friday, the DA’s office called the public defender’s allegations “baseless.”

Regarding the dashcam video, the DA’s office said that the preliminary hearing where the evidence was played concluded at 5:46 p.m., and that the first airing of the video cited by the PD’s motion was at 6:08 p.m.

As for the notice to seek the death penalty, the prosecution said that a DA’s office representative sent the notice to the media at 1:54 p.m. — two minutes after the clerk’s office showed it was filed.