Prosecutors will no longer seek the death penalty against a Pitcairn man accused of killing his Uber driver nearly three years ago.
The move was made Thursday by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office just four days before jury selection is scheduled to begin in the case against Calvin Crew, 25.
No official explanation was provided by the DA’s office, which did not immediately return a message Friday morning seeking comment.
There is a gag order in the case.
Jury selection starts Monday, but testimony won’t begin until Feb. 3.
The case, before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski, is expected to last more than a week.
Crew is charged in the shooting death of Christina Spicuzza, 38, of Turtle Creek on Feb. 10, 2022.
According to investigators, Crew’s girlfriend requested an Uber to pick him up in Pitcairn around 9:15 p.m. Spicuzza picked him up, and as she neared the drop-off location about 15 minutes later, police said Crew pulled out a handgun, grabbed the woman by the hair and put the gun to her head.
He ordered Spicuzza to stop along a wooded area on Rosecrest Drive in Monroeville and killed her, police said.
Her car was found on Fourth Avenue in Pitcairn the morning of Feb. 12. Her body was found four hours later by a delivery driver.
As part of the investigation, officers found Spicuzza’s dashboard camera, which captured the moments leading up to the shooting, on a street in Penn Hills.
The defense filed a motion to preclude the use of the video at trial, alleging that it violated Pennsylvania’s wiretap statute which requires notice that a person is being recorded.
But Borkowski denied the motion, saying that Crew knew — given that the camera was mounted on the dash and had a display screen — that he was being recorded.
“Further, given the totality of the circumstances, it is clear that the defendant had actual knowledge he was being recorded,” Borkowski wrote. “The camera’s display and (Crew’s) removal and disposal of the camera all establish the defendant’s knowledge of the recording device. As such, no notice was required.”
Soon after Crew was charged, the district attorney’s office said that it would seek the death penalty. In its notice, prosecutors identified two aggravating factors: the killing occurred during the commission of another felony — robbery; and Crew has a history of committing felonies involving the use or threat of violence.
However, on Thursday, the DA’s office rescinded that notice.
It is the third time this year that that has occurred.
The prosecution initally sought the death penalty against Ronald Steave for killing his ex-girlfriend, Nandi Fitzgerald, 28; her son, Denzel “Buddy” Nowlin Jr., 12; and Tatiana “Tay” Hill, 28, on New Year’s Eve 2021.
However, the DA’s office withdrew notice just days before the case was to begin.
Steave was found guilty by a judge in November of three counts of first-degree murder and will be sentenced in February to a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole.
The DA’s office also said it would seek death against Sean Black, who is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, Courtney Smith, 30, at their Blawnox workplace in March.
Prosecutors withdrew notice in that case about five months after it was filed, saying that Smith’s family said seeking capital punishment would negatively impact her children’s wellbeing.
Although there are 95 people on Pennsylvania’s death row, a moratorium on capital punishment in the commonwealth has existed since 2015.
In February 2023, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that he would refuse to sign any execution warrant that reaches his desk. He has called on the state legislature to abolish capital punishment in Pennsylvania.
There are six people from Allegheny County on Pennsylvania’s death row.
The most recent death sentence handed down here was Richard Poplawski in June 2011 for killing three Pittsburgh police officers following a domestic dispute at his Stanton Heights home.
Gary Heidnik, who was charged in Philadelphia, was the last person executed in Pennsylvania. Convicted of killing two women he had kidnapped and imprisoned in his home, he was executed on July 6, 1999.