PITTSBURGH — After careful deliberation, 12 members of the community found Calvin Crew, 25, of Pitcairn, guilty and convicted him of first-degree murder for the 2022 death of Christina Spicuzza. Coincidentally, they rendered their verdict three years from the date of her murder. Crew was also convicted of kidnapping, robbery, carrying a firearm without a license, inflicting serious bodily injury, theft of a motor vehicle and tampering with evidence.
Investigators followed an objective trail of overwhelming digital and video evidence which identified Crew as the robber, kidnapper and killer. The evidence admitted at trial included 422 individual exhibits submitted to the jury along with testimony from Crew’s girlfriend, who had purchased the Uber ride for him and dashcam video from inside Spicuzza’s car depicting Crew holding a gun to the back of Spicuzza’s head telling her to ‘keep driving.’ Further evidence included Crew’s fingerprint, cell phone GPS records, Uber records, the bullet casing and license plate readers used to track the movements of the car.
Crew is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5, 2025.
“With the abundance of evidence in this case, we wholeheartedly support the jury’s decision to convict,” said DA Zappala. “Sadly, this verdict cannot bring Christina back or change the tragedy her family has experienced with her loss, but we hope they are encouraged and find consolation in the justice served today.”
DA Zappala’s statement continues as follows:
“I would like to commend the professionals involved in investigating and prosecuting this case, the County detectives, criminalists, technicians and the prosecution trial team. There’s an incredible amount of teamwork involved in a case like this with so much technical and digital evidence. The officers involved methodically gathered the evidence and followed where it led. The trial prosecutors prosecuted the case on the objective evidence and the law.
This was a brutal senseless execution of a mother of four children simply trying to earn a living. Given the overwhelming evidence supporting this prosecution and the jury’s verdict, it is extremely disappointing to have the Public Defender’s Office attempt to characterize the investigation and prosecution as racial and political. Nothing could be further from the truth, and it is despicable that they would stoop to this level simply because the evidence of guilt was so overwhelming. Their smear tactics were despicable and unprofessional.
Crew was charged because the mountain of evidence led to him and proved he committed the crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, as found by the jury. On the other hand, the public defender had no evidence of racial or political motives in the charging and prosecution of this case but felt free to just make it up to promote their employer’s political agenda.
The rules of professional conduct do not provide defense counsel free reign to go into court and make baseless claims supported by nothing but desperate speculation. Those who engage in and condone such behavior should be held professionally accountable.
The Public Defender’s Office falls under the jurisdiction of the County Executive, as does the County Police. We hope the County Executive does not condone such unprofessional conduct nor condone one agency under her jurisdiction making baseless claims against another.”
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