Allegheny County Jail/Facebook Calvin Crew is accused of killing Uber driver Christine Spicuzza.
Calvin Anthony Crew of Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, was arrested on homicide and related charges in the death of Uber driver Christina Spicuzza. Spicuzza, of Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, was reported missing when she did not return home from an Uber shift.
Her body was found on a hillside days later in Monroeville, a Pittsburgh suburb, police said. Read more about her here.
Crew, 22, is charged with criminal homicide, robbery, robbery of motor vehicle, firearms not to be carried without a license, person not to possess a firearm and tampering with physical evidence, according to the docket sheet in his case.
Spicuzza, 38, was working for Uber February 10, 2022, when her family last heard from her, according to the criminal complaint filed in Crew’s case. Her fiance reported her missing the next day, police said, and her body was found in a wooded area February 12. An autopsy conducted the following day determined she died from a gunshot wound to the back of her head. The manner of death was listed as homicide.
Police wrote in court documents that she was found lying facedown wearing a face mask, and a 9 mm shell casing was found near her body. Her vehicle had been found in Pitcairn earlier that day, police said.
Crew has a criminal history dating back to his youth and is facing firearms charges in a separate active criminal case, court records show. He was arrested in that case days before the homicide warrant was issued in Spicuzza’s death.
Crew was arrested by the Allegheny County Police Department (ACPD). He was arraigned at 2:45 a.m. Friday, February 18, before on-call Magisterial District Judge Robert Paul Dzvonick, who denied bail in his case.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Spicuzza’s Fiance Bought Her a Dashcam That Recorded Her Last Minutes Alive
“I’m begging you, I have 4 kids.”
Criminal complaint reveals those were some of the last words Christi Spicuzza said to the man who’s accused of murdering her. 22 yr old Calvin Crew is currently in the Allegheny County Jail. @WPXI
MORE DETAILS –
A dashcam Spicuzza’s fiance bought her helped lead to the arrest of Crew, according to the criminal complaint filed in Crew’s case. The dashcam was found during a canvas of the area on February 17, shortly before police issued an arrest warrant for Crew. A detective found the camera one-tenth of a mile from the Uber pickup spot in Penn Hills, police said. Police viewed the footage from a mini SD card in the camera, which recorded audio and video from the front and back of the car, court paperwork says.
The video shows a person in dark clothing with a hood up approaching the vehicle from 139 Brinton Avenue at 9:14 p.m., court documents said. Spicuzza says the first name of the person who ordered the Uber, who police said is Crew’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Tanaya Mullen of Pitcairn. Mullen has not been charged in the case.
Crew does not respond to Spicuzza, police wrote in court documents.
When the Uber approaches the drop-off point at 9:33 p.m., police said, Crew pulls out a gun and leans toward Spicuzza, placing his hand on her left shoulder.
“Keep driving,” he tells her, while placing the gun at the back of her head, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, Spicuzza’s fiance, Brandon Marto, was home putting their children to bed, he wrote on Facebook. He said that he fell asleep with the kids and woke up to discover that she had not come home or checked in with him. He pleaded for help finding her.
Two days later, after her body was found, he wrote that he was “completely broken” but determined to stay strong for their children.
I want to respond to everyone who reached out personally, but I’m just too emotionally drained. Thank you. For now I am sincerely asking for prayers. For my children to not hurt emotionally, and for me to have the strength to get thru this for my children. I am completely broken and horrified. I’m so lost without her. But I want everyone to know that I WILL be okay because I know my kids need me. I may reach out to any one of you at any moment if I’m struggling, but I just wanted to let you all know I’m so greatful for the prayers and support. Truly, truly, truly. Thank you.
2. ‘I Have a Family,’ Spicuzza Said After the Suspect Pulled a Gun on Her
NEW: we just received the mugshot for Calvin Crew, the man charged in Christi Spicuzza’s death @WPXI
At 9:33, two seconds after police say Crew pointed a gun at Spicuzza, she reaches up and touches the gun, according to video police summarized in the affidavit of probable cause filed in his case.
“You’ve got to be joking,” she says in the video, according to police.
“It’s a gun,” he replies.
“Come on, I have a family,” she says.
“I got a family too,” he says. “Now drive.”
“I’m begging you, I have four kids,” police said she told Crew.
He told her multiple times to “complete the trip,” and at one point grabbed her ponytail to control her head, police said.
“Please take that off of me,” Spicuzza says at 9:34, according to police.
“Do what I say and everything will be alright,” Crew responds, according to police.
Police said he then took her cellphone from the dashboard.
The video ends at 9:34 and 48 seconds when the man police identified as Crew reaches forward and grabs the camera.
3. Crew Was an Adjudicated Delinquent & Not Permitted to Possess a Gun
Calvin Crew, 22, was arrested Thursday in Penn Hills for his alleged involvement in the death of Christina Spicuzza of Turtle Creek, according to Allegheny County Police.
Crew’s charges filed in the case indicate he was an adjudicated delinquent who was not permitted to possess a firearm. The statute under which Crew was charged outlaws the possession of a firearm following adjudication on certain serious offenses committed as a juvenile.
Crew was also arrested days before the homicide warrant was filed, according to court records. The Northern Regional Police Department arrested Crew February 15 in a case filed December 8, 2021, in Marshall Township, Pennsylvania. In that case, he faces a felony related to the sale and transfer of firearms and a misdemeanor of unsworn falsification to authorities. Police say he committed those crimes on September 10, 2020.
He was arraigned on those charges and released on his own recognizance, court documents indicate.
A search of criminal records indicates he has not faced any other criminal charges as an adult in Pennsylvania.
ACPD Superintendent Christopher Kearns said in a February 18 press conference that police believe Crew’s motive was robbery. The two had no prior connection, he said, which he described as unusual in a homicide case.
4. Crew’s Girlfriend Told Police He Told Her to Order an Uber the Night of the Murder
Allegheny County Police is set to hold a press conference shortly about the arrest of 22-year-old Calvin Crew. He was arrested and charged in connection with the murder of Uber driver Christina Spicuzza. @WTAE
Police contacted Crew’s girlfriend February 14 and asked to speak with her. She went to the Penn Hills police station, bringing Crew with her, police wrote in court documents.
She said Crew called her February 10 and asked her to call an Uber for him. She was in Swissvale at the time, she told police, and he gave her an address to type into the Uber app for the ride request.
Police interviewed her a second time, and she told police her gun was missing. She had purchased the 9 mm gun at a McKeesport gun shop. She told police she believed Crew was the only person who could have taken the gun, according to court documents. Police went to her home to collect evidence, but the gun box and paperwork were not there, police said.
5. Crew Claimed He Took a Bus to Pitcairn After the Uber Ride, But Surveillance Footage Did Not Show Anyone Matching His Description
When police questioned Crew about his activities the night of the murder, he claimed that he got out of the Uber, walked to a Wilkinsburg bus station and took the Trafford bus to Pitcairn, where he lived with his girlfriend, according to court documents. Investigators reviewed surveillance footage from the bus station and did not see anyone matching Crew’s description, police said.
Police wrote in court documents that investigators gathered trip information from Uber, which indicated Spicuzza’s last trip began at about 9 p.m., starting at Brinton Road. They also collected her cellphone into evidence after a person working along the railroad tracks under the TriBoro Expressway called police to say he found a phone. It was a pink cellphone with a cracked screen, police wrote.
Police were able to obtain information from the phone that showed the last locations she traveled, and when it stopped tracking her location, police wrote. Her license plate was also recorded on plate readers at several locations near the TriBoro Expressway, police said.
Crew’s preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for 8 a.m. February 25 before Magisterial District Judge Kim Berkeley Clark. Clark is the judge assigned to the case.
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