A jury found Calvin Crew guilty of first-degree murder on Monday, exactly three years after he forced Uber driver Christina Spicuzza to ferry him across eastern Allegheny County for nearly an hour before marching her into the woods in Monroeville and fatally shooting her.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Borkowski acknowledged that grim anniversary moments before the jury foreman announced the verdict.
Crew, 24, of Pitcairn will be sentenced May 5 to a mandatory term of life in prison without parole.
He had no visible reaction as the panel of six men and six women rendered their verdict — guilty of murder, robbery, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and carrying a firearm without a license.
The jury deliberated for about four hours Friday and briefly Monday morning before announcing their verdict.
Spicuzza, 38, a mother of four from Turtle Creek, was killed on Feb. 10, 2022, while she was driving for the rideshare service.
Spicuzza, who had started her shift for Uber just after 7 p.m. that evening, picked Crew up at his home about 9:15 p.m. and drove to his destination on Dersam Street in Penn Hills.
However, according to dashcam video from inside Spicuzza’s car, Crew, wearing a black face mask, hat and hood, shifted to the middle of the back seat, pulled out a gun and pressed it to the back of her head.
He ordered her to drive. Then, about 50 minutes later, they stopped on Rosecrest Drive in Monroeville where, Allegheny County Deputy District Attorney Emma Schoedel told the jury, Crew marched Spicuzza into the woods, and shot her once in the back of the head.
Investigators used cell phone tracking information, Uber records and the recovered dashcam video to identify Crew as the killer.
At trial, which began Feb. 3, the defense told the jury that if they believed Crew was the shooter, he was, at worst, guilty of second-degree murder — killing someone during the commission of another felony.
In this case, Crew was also charged with robbery and kidnapping.
Both first- and second-degree murder carry mandatory sentences of life without parole in Pennsylvania, although a current state Supreme Court appeal looks to change that.
Prosecutors on the case initially sought the death penalty against Crew. Just days before jury selection was scheduled, however, they reversed their decision.
During closings on Friday, Schoedel told the jury that Crew was guilty of pre-meditated, first-degree murder.
“He had multiple chances to make this anything short of a lethal endeavor,” Schoedel said. “He killed Christi because he wanted to.”