Prosecutors want to bring murder victim’s dying statement into evidence at trial
Assistant Prosecutor Al Garcia wants a judge to reconsider whether a jury can hear evidence of a dying declaration Trenton gang member Tracy Crews reportedly made moments after he was shot in the neck with a 9 mm luger in September 2008.
While Sheena Robinson-Crews cradled her dying husband in her arms on a city street, she reportedly asked her husband about the identity of the assailant.
“Paperboy,” Crews reportedly told his wife, referring to William Brown, his close friend, former roommate and the best man at his wedding. Brown’s nickname on the streets was “Paperboy,” prosecutors have said. Garcia has said Crews, a convicted drug dealer, was shot after he recognized the voice of one of the intruders inside his Whittaker Avenue residence.
Judge Robert Billmeier had excluded Crews’ dying declaration, ruling it was unreliable hearsay, based on Robinson-Crews’ evolving recollection of her husband’s statements shortly before he succumbed to his injuries.
After initially refusing to speak with authorities for several hours, Robinson-Crews told police her husband implicated both Brown and Nigel Joseph Dawson. Later, she changed her statement and claimed her husband only mentioned Brown.
The defense said another man who stood next to Robinson-Crews while she applied pressure to her husband’s wound was within earshot of their conversation and earlier testified before Billmeier that he didn’t hear Crews speak.
Garcia argued Thursday that defense attorneys “opened the door” for the evidence by suggesting Robinson-Crews “had a hand” in her husband’s murder. Additionally, he said, he felt the dying declaration would help explain a possible motive for why Robinson-Crews made a false allegation against Brown.
She claimed he had pointed a handgun at her in the presence of some of her friends sometime after the murder. Investigators determined the allegation was unfounded.
Robinson-Crews testified earlier this week she wanted Brown and Dawson arrested for her husband’s murder. But she was not allowed to explain reasons she suspected they were behind the crime.
Defense attorneys said Smithson’s reconsideration of the dying declaration would require witnesses be recalled. They said they would want to ask the medical examiner who testified the bullet had severed Crews’ carotid artery whether he still had the ability to speak after suffering such a traumatic injury.
Smithson said he planned to make a final decision on the dying declaration after holding a hearing outside the jury’s presence. He said Crews’ dying declaration could put into context some of Robinson-Crews’ lies and suspicions about the defendants.
