'There’s consequences,' judge tells Pittsburgh man before sending him to prison for killing toddler with stray bullet

Zaphora Bernard held up the baby book, “The Life of Zykier Young. I love you.”

Zykier was just 5 pounds, 9 ounces when he was born. But 22 inches long, his mom said.

She flipped through the pages, displaying them for the judge to see, thrusting the book toward the man across the room.

“This was his last day on earth,” Bernard said pointing to an image, her voice rising. “You see that?”

Then, the woman, who was just 19 years old when her toddler was killed after a stray bullet traveled through three walls and struck him as he lay in bed, concluded her statement.

“I don’t got no hate against you,” she told Andre Crawford. “But you took my son away. My whole family.”

**

It was late afternoon on Aug. 24, 2020, when three different men shot at each other at the Three Rivers Manor housing complex in Pittsburgh’s Spring Hill.

Devon Thompson was in the North Side neighborhood visiting his aunt when people started screaming that another man, Marvin Hill, was outside with a gun.

“I went in a mode, I was going to be the one to stop it if someone started shooting,” Thompson testified at Hill’s trial in October. “My state of mind was if he raised the gun to fire, I was going to fire.”

Hill, who lived there, raised the rifle he was holding, and Thompson fired four or five shots, striking Hill in the leg.

Hill retreated, but reemerged from the building about five minutes later. He fired the rifle, seven times in all.

Crawford, who was in the complex to buy marijuana, also had a gun on him that day.

He fired five shots back at Hill.

It was one of Crawford’s bullets that went through the window of a second-floor apartment at 128 Rhine Place, traveled through three walls and struck Zykier.

He was just 17 months old.

Police charged all three men involved in the shootout with homicide.

Thompson and Crawford both agreed to testify against Hill, and in exchange for their cooperation, they pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

Thompson pleaded to aggravated assault for shooting Hill and was sentenced to 2-1/2 to 5 years in prison.

Hill, who was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter by a jury, will be sentenced next week.

Crawford, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, was sentenced Thursday.

Allegheny County Common Pleas President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente ordered Crawford to serve five to 10 years in prison.

As she imposed the sentence, she lamented that none of what happened that day was necessary.

“This whole case is a tragedy of epic proportions.”

‘There’s consequences’

Crawford, 33, of McKeesport grew up surrounded by a loving family.

His mother was a good role model, working as a nurse for 25 years at West Penn Hospital, the judge said.

Crawford, a standout football player at Perry Traditional Academy on the North Side, got a full scholarship to Villanova University.

But in August 2009, he was caught in Pittsburgh with a gun.

He pleaded guilty the next year to carrying a firearm without a license and was ordered to serve two years probation.

He lost his scholarship.

“I would think that would have been enough to make you understand you can’t have a gun,” Evashavik DiLucente said. “You had a full ride. The fact you had that gun ruined it.”

But even after Crawford lost his scholarship, the judge continued, he went on to lead an upstanding life. He was gainfully employed and stayed out of trouble.

His family on Thursday described him as a good, kind man.

But when he went to Three Rivers Manor that day, Crawford had a gun again.

“Why didn’t you just leave the scene?” the judge asked him. “Why didn’t you just remove yourself?

“Yes, you were defending yourself. Yes, you were shot at. Nobody thinks you intended to kill that baby,” she continued.

“You elected to continue and have a gun. There’s consequences.”

A grandfather asks why

Zykier’s mom, now 22, was the first witness to testify Thursday, addressing Crawford directly.

“Sure, it was an accident. Sure, that bullet wasn’t meant for Zykier,” she said. “But it hit him. Have you thought about what you did?”

Zykier’s paternal grandfather also addressed the defendant.

“You may not have had intentions of killing my grandson,” Eugene Young said. “Why were you carrying a gun?”

Crawford could have left that day, he continued.

“Instead, you fired a shot blindly from behind a door. Why?”

Zykier’s family, Young said, will continue to suffer.

“I never get to see my grandson again. You get to call your parents, see your family,” he said. “I’ve got to go see my grandson when I want to visit him at a grave site.”

Crawford spoke briefly, asking that Zykier’s family someday forgive him.

“I am sorry for everything that happened,” he said. “Every day, I think about what I have done. I hate myself for what I’ve done.”

Defense attorney Turahn Jenkins urged Zykier’s loved ones to find forgiveness.

When it was his turn to address the court, he turned and faced the gallery instead.

“We’ll never get to see what your son would have become,” Jenkins said. “It’s a loss to all of us.”

The long-time defense attorney recounted his own experience with loss when his cousin, who was like a brother to him, was killed.

After the person who killed his cousin was convicted, Jenkins told Zykier’s family, “I thought that it would heal my heart.

“Over time, I learned that I had to forgive because that was the only way myself and my family could move on.”

Bernard responded from the gallery.

“I forgave you already,” she said to Crawford. “Forgiveness is already in my heart.

“But my son’s still gone. No forgiveness can bring him back. It’s been almost four years, but still he’s gone. He’s gone.”